POP Nameplate
  • Volume/Page
  • Keyword
  • DOI
  • Citation
  • Advanced
   
 
 
 

Flickr Twitter iResearch App Facebook

Search Issue | RSS Feeds RSS
Previous Issue

Dec 2003

Volume 10, Issue 12, pp. 4601-4915

Return to All Sections
back to top
RSS Feeds
back to top Ionospheric, Solar-system, and Astrophysical Plasmas

Plasma heating via parametric beating of Alfvén waves, with heliospheric applications

Steven H. Bekhor and R. Paul Drake

Phys. Plasmas 10, 4800 (2003); http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.1619975 (11 pages) | Cited 1 time

Online Publication Date: 20 November 2003

Full Text: | Download PDF

Show Abstract
This paper advances a novel mechanism to explain the dissipation of the Alfvén waves that carry much of the energy in heliospheric and astrophysical turbulence, with specific applications to solar wind heating. The essential point is that the nonlinear beating of relatively low-frequency Alfvén waves, which are abundant in the heliosphere, drives a compressible magnetosonic response whose damping can dissipate significant energy. This mechanism involves both kinetic and magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) processes. The damping of the magnetosonic waves is a kinetic process. The nonlinear beating of Alfvén waves, which produces the magnetosonic waves, is best described by MHD theory. This mechanism complements and may compete with the well-known alternative mechanism in which the cascade of turbulent energy to small-scale, high-frequency Alfvén waves dissipates by ion-cyclotron damping. The MHD analysis in this paper reveals that the fast magnetosonic mode dominates the dissipation when the plasma beta is near unity, and that the timescale of dissipation in the heliosphere can vary from hours to a year depending upon the direction of the driven wave and the plasma parameters where it is driven. The damping of the driven magnetosonic waves may also contribute to the observed high-energy particle distributions. © 2003 American Institute of Physics.
Show PACS
52.35.Bj Magnetohydrodynamic waves (e.g., Alfven waves)
52.50.-b Plasma production and heating
96.20.Br Origin and evolution
96.60.Vg Particle emission, solar wind
52.35.Ra Plasma turbulence
95.30.Qd Magnetohydrodynamics and plasmas
Return to All Sections
Close

Google Calendar

ADVERTISEMENT

Go to AIP Home   © AIP Publishing LLC
close