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Low-frequency waves in a high-beta collisionless plasma: polarization, compressibility and helicity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 March 2009

S. Peter Gary
S. Peter Gary
Affiliation:
Earth and Space Science Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545
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Abstract

This paper considers the linear theory of waves near and below the ion cyclotron frequency in an isothermal electron-ion Vlasov plasma which is isotropic, homogeneous and magnetized. Numerical solutions of the full dispersion equation for the magnetosonic/whistler and Alfvén/ion cyclotron modes at βi = 1·0 are presented, and the polarizations, compressibilities, helicities, ion Alfvén ratios and ion cross-helicities are exhibited and compared. At sufficiently large βi and θ, the angle of propagation with respect to the magnetic field, the real part of the polarization of the Alfvén/ion cyclotron wave changes sign, so that, for such parameters, this mode is no longer left-hand polarized. The Alfvén/ion cyclotron mode becomes more compressive as the wavenumber ulereases, whereas the magnetosonic/whistler becomes more compressive with increasing θ, At oblique propagation, the helicity of both modes approaches zero in the long-wavelength limit; in contrast, the ion cross-helicity is of order unity for the Alfvén/ion cyclotron wave and decreases as θ increases for the magnetosonic/whistler mode.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Plasma Physics , Volume 35 , Issue 3 , June 1986 , pp. 431 - 447
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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