An instability of finite amplitude circularly polarized Afvén waves

Files

1978ApJ___219__700G.pdf (566.22 KB)

Links to Files

https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1978ApJ...219..700G/abstract

Permanent Link

http://hdl.handle.net/11603/30504

Collections

UMBC Goddard Planetary Heliophysics Institute (GPHI)

Author/Creator

Author/Creator ORCID

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5317-988X

Date

1978-01

Type of Work

journal articles
Text

Department

Program

Citation of Original Publication

Goldstein, M. L. “An Instability of Finite Amplitude Circularly Polarized Afvén Waves.” The Astrophysical Journal 219 (January 1, 1978): 700–704. https://doi.org/10.1086/155829.

Rights

This is a work of the United States Government. In accordance with 17 U.S.C. 105, no copyright protection is available for such works under U.S. Law.
Public Domain Mark 1.0

Subjects

Abstract

A demonstration is presented that a finite-amplitude circularly-polarized Alfven wave is generally unstable in a MHD fluid. The wave decays by a four-wave coupling process in which the daughter waves are forward propagating random density and magnetic fluctuations and a backward-propagating magnetic wave. For parameters typical of the solar corona and the solar wind (thermal to magnetic energy density ratios between 0.1 and 1, and values between 0.1 and 0.9 for the ratio of magnetic energy density of the initial Alfven wave to that of the background magnetic field), large decay rates are found.