Alfvén wave phase-mixing and damping in the ion cyclotron range of frequencies
Abstract
Aims: We determine the effect of the Hall term in the generalised Ohm's law on the damping and phase mixing of Alfvén waves in the ion cyclotron range of frequencies in uniform and non-uniform equilibrium plasmas.
Methods: Wave damping in a uniform plasma is treated analytically, whilst a Lagrangian remap code (Lare2d) is used to study Hall effects on damping and phase mixing in the presence of an equilibrium density gradient.
Results: The magnetic energy associated with an initially Gaussian field perturbation in a uniform resistive plasma is shown to decay algebraically at a rate that is unaffected by the Hall term to leading order in k2δ_i^2 where k is wavenumber and δ_i is ion skin depth. A similar algebraic decay law applies to whistler perturbations in the limit k2δ_i^2 ≫ 1. In a non-uniform plasma it is found that the spatially-integrated damping rate due to phase mixing is lower in Hall MHD than it is in MHD, but the reduction in the damping rate, which can be attributed to the effects of wave dispersion, tends to zero in both the weak and strong phase mixing limits.
- Publication:
-
Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Pub Date:
- January 2011
- DOI:
- 10.1051/0004-6361/201015479
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1007.4752
- Bibcode:
- 2011A&A...525A.155T
- Keywords:
-
- plasmas;
- waves;
- magnetohydrodynamics (MHD);
- Sun: flares;
- Sun: chromosphere;
- Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201015479