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Relaxation of a non-ideal incompressible plasma with mass flow

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 1999

O. K. CHEREMNYKH
Affiliation:
Space Research Institute NASU and NSAU, Kiev, Ukraine
J. W. EDENSTRASSER
Affiliation:
Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Innsbruck, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria
V. V. GORIN
Affiliation:
Space Research Institute NASU and NSAU, Kiev, Ukraine

Abstract

The time evolution of an incompressible non-ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD), current-carrying plasma with mass flow is investigated. An approach for the reduction of the nonlinear vector MHD equations to a set of scalar partial differential equations is supposed. Analytical time-dependent solutions of this system are presented. They describe kinetic plasma equilibria both with well-defined nested-in magnetic and velocity surfaces and in the form of vortices. The obtained solutions may be called ‘diffusion-like’, since their temporal structure is very similar to the solutions of the diffusion problem. It is shown that the magnetic field and the velocity have different dumping rates. In the asymptotic limit t→∞, the plasma slowly relaxes towards the hydrostatic equilibrium of gravitating systems.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
1999 Cambridge University Press

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