Alfven shock trains

Journal Article · Sat Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 1991 · Physics of Fluids B; (USA)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.859706· OSTI ID:5572036

Malkov, M A; Kennel, C F; Wu, C C; Pellat, R; Shapiro, V D ^[1]

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1. Space Research Institute, Profsoyuznaya 84/32, Moscow, USSR (SU)

The Cohen--Kulsrud--Burgers equation (CKB) is used to consider the nonlinear evolution of resistive, quasiparallel Alfven waves subject to a long-wavelength, plane-polarized, monochromatic instability. The instability saturates by nonlinear steepening, which proceeds until the periodic waveform develops an interior scale length comparable to the dissipation length; a fast or an intermediate shock then forms. The result is a periodic train of Alfven shocks of one or the other type. For propagation strictly parallel to the magnetic field, there will be two shocks per instability wavelength. Numerical integration of the time-dependent CKB equation shows that an initial, small-amplitude growing wave asymptotes to a stable, periodic stationary wave whose analytic solution specifies how the type of shock embedded in the shock train, and the amplitude and speed of the shock train, depend on the strength and phase of the instability. Waveforms observed upstream of the Earth's bowshock and cometary shocks resemble those calculated here.

• OSTI ID: 5572036
• Journal Information: Physics of Fluids B; (USA), Vol. 3:6; ISSN 0899-8221
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
COLLISIONLESS PLASMA
SHOCK WAVES
ALFVEN WAVES
AMPLITUDES
ASYMPTOTIC SOLUTIONS
COMETS
CYCLOTRON RESONANCE
EARTH PLANET
MAGNETIC FIELDS
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
NUMERICAL SOLUTION
PLASMA INSTABILITY
SATURATION
STEADY-STATE CONDITIONS
TIME DEPENDENCE
WAVE FORMS
HYDROMAGNETIC WAVES
INSTABILITY
PLANETS
PLASMA
RESONANCE
640430* - Fluid Physics- Magnetohydrodynamics