A nonlocal wave-wave interaction among Alfven waves in an intermediate-{beta} plasma

Journal Article · Tue Mar 15 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3568840· OSTI ID:21537310

Zhao, J S ^[1]; Wu, D J ^[1]; Lu, J Y ^[2]

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1. Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008 (China)
2. National Center for Space Weather, China Meteorology Administration, Beijing 100081 (China)

A nonlocal coupling mechanism to directly transfer the energy from large-scale magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) Alfven waves to small-scale kinetic Alfven waves is presented. It is shown that the interaction between a MHD Alfven wave and a reversely propagating kinetic Alfven wave can generate another kinetic Alfven wave, and this interaction exists in the plasmas where the thermal to magnetic pressure ratio is larger than the electron to ion mass ratio. The proposed nonlocal interaction may have a potential application to account for the observed electron scale kinetic Alfven waves in the solar wind and solar corona plasmas.

• OSTI ID: 21537310
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 18, Issue 3; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3568840; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ALFVEN WAVES
COUPLING
INTERACTIONS
MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS
PLASMA
SOLAR CORONA
SOLAR WIND
ATMOSPHERES
FLUID MECHANICS
HYDRODYNAMICS
HYDROMAGNETIC WAVES
MECHANICS
SOLAR ACTIVITY
SOLAR ATMOSPHERE
STELLAR ACTIVITY
STELLAR ATMOSPHERES
STELLAR CORONAE
STELLAR WINDS