Stability and waves of transonic laboratory and space plasmas |
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Authors: | Goedbloed JP |
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Institution: | (1) FOM-Institute for Plasma Physics, P.O. Box 1207, 3430BE Nieuwegein, the Netherlands |
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Abstract: | The properties of magnetohydrodynamic waves and instabilities of laboratory and space plasmas are determined by the overall
magnetic confinement geometry and by the detailed distributions of the density, pressure, magnetic field, and background velocity
of the plasma. Consequently, measurement of the spectrum of MHD waves (MHD spectroscopy) gives direct information on the internal
state of the plasma, provided a theoretical model is available to solve the forward as well as the inverse spectral problems.
This terminology entails a program, viz. to improve the accuracy of our knowledge of plasmas, both in the laboratory and in
space. Here, helioseismology (which could be considered as one of the forms of MHD spectroscopy) may serve as a luminous example.
The required study of magnetohydrodynamic waves and instabilities of both laboratory and space plasmas has been conducted
for many years starting from the assumption of static equilibrium. Recently, there is a outburst of interest for plasma states
where this assumption is violated. In fusion research, this interest is due to the importance of neutral beam heating and
pumped divertor action for the extraction of heat and exhaust needed in future tokamak reactors. Both result in rotation of
the plasma with speeds that do not permit the assumption of static equilibrium anymore. In astrophysics, observations in the
full range of electromagnetic radiation has revealed the primary importance of plasma flows in such diverse situations as
coronal flux tubes, stellar winds, rotating accretion disks, and jets emitted from radio galaxies. These flows have speeds
which substantially influence the background stationary equilibrium state, if such a state exists at all. Consequently, it
is important to study both the stationary states of magnetized plasmas with flow and the waves and instabilities they exhibit.
We will present new results along these lines, extending from the discovery of gaps in the continuous spectrum and low-frequency
Alfvén waves driven by rotation to the nonlinear flow patterns that occur when the background speed traverses the full range
from sub-slow to super-fast.
This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date. |
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Keywords: | MHD waves transonic plasmas |
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