Kinetic theory of MHD instabilities in a nonuniform plasma

✍ Scribed by Akira Hasegawa

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1976
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 333 KB
• Volume: 47
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0038-0938
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00152271

✦ Synopsis

Most of the MHD instabilities originating from the nonuniformity of a plasma excite MHD surface wave. When the excited wave has a frequency o& which corresponds to the local shear Alfv6n wave resonance (o&-kllVA(X), where va is the Alfv6n speed and kLi is the wave number in the direction of the magnetic field), the surface wave resonantly mode converts to the kinetic Alfv6n wave, the Alfv6n wave having a perpendicular wavelength comparable to the ion gyroradius and being able to propagate across the magnetic field. We discuss various linear and nonlinear effects of this kinetic Alfv6n wave on the plasma including particle acceleration and heating. A specific example for the case of a MHD Kelvin-Helmholtz instability is given.

Hence the boundary conditions that the normal component of ~ and 15 be continuous give the dispersion relation for the surface wave ms = x/2kllVa.