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Temporal Alfvén wave echoes in an inhomogeneous plasma
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 March 2009
Abstract
If an external current pulse is applied to a diffuse plasma sheet pinch, surface wave modes are generated, which decay by collisionless damping, leaving only oscillations of the Alfvén continuum along the Alfvén resonance surface. The transverse perturbations within this surface phase-mix to zero. It is shown that perturbations induced by an initial pulse are modulated by a (later applied) second pulse of different wavelength, to yield non-vanishing second-order transverse perturbations, even though the first-order transverse perturbations have phase-mixed to zero. This analysis shows the importance of nonlinear effects in the evolution of inhomogeneous magnetohydrodynamic motions.
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- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984
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