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Phase mixing and surface-wave decay in an inhomogeneous plasma

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 March 2009

P. S. Cally  and
Z. Sedláček
P. S. Cally
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3168, Australia, andHigh Altitude Observatory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado 80307–3000, U.S.A.
Z. Sedláček
Affiliation:
Institute of Plasma Physics, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Pod vodarenskou věžì 4, CS-182 11 Prague 8, Czechoslovakia
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Abstract

The decay rate of an Alfvén or plasma surface wave propagating along an inhomogeneous layer of plasma is calculated. The inhomogeneous profile is thin and odd, but otherwise arbitrary. The wave's decay rate is determined using two fundamentally different methods, the integro-differential equation approach of Sedl´ček and the Sturm-Liouville expansion technique of Cally, and found by both to depend only on the slope of the Alfvén or plasma frequency profile at the ‘resonant point’, and not on other details of its shape. The result is verified numerically. This problem represents a good example with which to compare and contrast the two methods.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Plasma Physics , Volume 48 , Issue 1 , August 1992 , pp. 145 - 158
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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