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Parametric instabilities of finite-amplitude, circularly polarized Alfvén waves in an anisotropic plasma

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 March 2009

Hiromitsu Hamabata
Affiliation:
Space Science Division, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California 94035, U.S.A.

Abstract

A class of parametric instabilities of finite-amplitude, circularly polarized Alfvén waves in a plasma with pressure anisotropy is studied by application of the CGL equations. A linear perturbation analysis is used to find the dispersion relation governing the instabilities, which is a fifth-order polynomial and is solved numerically. A large-amplitude, circularly polarized wave is unstable with respect to decay into three waves: one sound-like wave and two side-band Alfvén-like waves. It is found that, in addition to the decay instability, two new instabilities that are absent in the framework of the MHD equations can occur, depending on the plasma parameters.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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