SCALAR AND VECTOR NONLINEAR DECAYS OF LOW-FREQUENCY ALFVÉN WAVES

Journal Article · Sun Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 2015 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/799/2/222· OSTI ID:22364307

Zhao, J. S.; Wu, D. J. ^[1]; Voitenko, Y.

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1. Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008 (China)

We found several efficient nonlinear decays for Alfvén waves in the solar wind conditions. Depending on the wavelength, the dominant decay is controlled by the nonlinearities proportional to either scalar or vector products of wavevectors. The two-mode decays of the pump MHD Alfvén wave into co- and counter-propagating product Alfvén and slow waves are controlled by the scalar nonlinearities at long wavelengths ρ{sub i}{sup 2}k{sub 0⊥}{sup 2}<ω{sub 0}/ω{sub ci} (k {sub 0} is wavenumber perpendicular to the background magnetic field, ω{sub 0} is frequency of the pump Alfvén wave, ρ {sub i} is ion gyroradius, and ω {sub ci} is ion-cyclotron frequency). The scalar decays exhibit both local and nonlocal properties and can generate not only MHD-scale but also kinetic-scale Alfvén and slow waves, which can strongly accelerate spectral transport. All waves in the scalar decays propagate in the same plane, hence these decays are two-dimensional. At shorter wavelengths, ρ{sub i}{sup 2}k{sub 0⊥}{sup 2}>ω{sub 0}/ω{sub ci}, three-dimensional vector decays dominate generating out-of-plane product waves. The two-mode decays dominate from MHD up to ion scales ρ {sub i} k {sub 0} ≅ 0.3; at shorter scales the one-mode vector decays become stronger and generate only Alfvén product waves. In the solar wind the two-mode decays have high growth rates >0.1ω{sub 0} and can explain the origin of slow waves observed at kinetic scales.

• OSTI ID: 22364307
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 799; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ALFVEN WAVES
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
PLASMA
SOLAR WIND
SUN
THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
TWO-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
WAVELENGTHS