Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 March 2009
Periodic plane waves propagating in a homogeneous cold Vlasov plasma under the influence of an external magnetic field B0 have been studied in this paper. Non-linear coupled differential equations for the two transverse components of the local magnetic field have been obtained for any angle α between B0 and the wave vector. Starting from the previously obtained exact solution for α = 90° and the zeroth-order solution for α = 0, two perturbation methods are used to obtain first-order solutions for α = 0 and intermediate angles. A numerical example has been worked out in detail for a specific value of the field energy density; although it is not possible to match the two sets of results rigorously, they seem to converge smoothly to the same limit.