Regular Articles

Full Text / References

Effect of Ion Composition on Oblique Magnetosonic Waves

Yuichi KONDO and Mieko TOIDA

Department of Physics, Nagoya University, Nagoya 464-8602, Japan

(Received 6 December 2010 / Accepted 13 January 2011 / Published 1 July 2011)

Abstract

The effects of ion composition on oblique magnetosonic waves in a two-ion-species plasma are studied theoretically and numerically. First, it is analytically shown that the KdV equation for the low-frequency mode, the lower branch of magnetosonic waves, is valid for amplitudes ε < ε^(l−)_max, where ε^(l−)_max is a measure of the upper limit of the amplitude of the rarefactive solitary pulse of the low-frequency mode and is given as a function of the propagation angle of the wave θ, the density ratio and cyclotron frequency ratio of two ion species. The value of ε^(l−)_max increases with decreasing θ. Next, with electromagnetic particle simulations, the nonlinear evolution of the low- and high-frequency modes is examined. It is demonstrated that shorter-wavelength low- and high-frequency-mode waves are generated from a long-wavelength low-frequency-mode pulse if its amplitude ε exceeds ε^(l−)_max.

Copyright (c) 2011 The Japan Society of Plasma Science and Nuclear Fusion Research

Keywords

magnetosonic wave, nonlinear wave, soliton, KdV equation, multi-ion-species plasma

DOI: 10.1585/pfr.6.2401026

Full Text

PDF format (582Kbytes)

References

• [1] S.J. Buchsbaum, Phys. Fluids 3, 418 (1960).
• [2] M. Toida and Y. Ohsawa, J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 63, 573, (1994).
• [3] M. Toida, Y. Ohsawa and T. Jyounouchi, Phys. Plasmas 2, 3329 (1995).
• [4] M. Toida, H. Higashino and Y. Ohsawa, J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 76, 104502 (2007).
• [5] S. Irie and Y. Ohsawa, Phys. Plasmas 10, 1255 (2003).

This paper may be cited as follows:

Yuichi KONDO and Mieko TOIDA, Plasma Fusion Res. 6, 2401026 (2011).