Decay instability of incoherent Alfven waves in the solar wind

Details Decay instability of incoherent Alfven waves in the solar wind Decay instability of incoherent Alfven waves in the solar wind

Mar 1992

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1992jgr....97.3113u&link_type=abstract

Journal of Geophysical Research (ISSN 0148-0227), vol. 97, no. A3, March 1, 1992, p. 3113-3119.

Other

34

Backscattering, Circular Polarization, Magnetohydrodynamic Waves, Solar Wind, Wave Propagation, Landau Damping, Linear Polarization, Magnetohydrodynamic Stability, Power Spectra, Solar Terrestrial Interactions

Scientific paper

The nonlinear evolution of a large-amplitude incoherent Alfven wave is studied via 1D magnetohydrodynamic simulation. The initial wave magnetic field is given as a superposition of circularly polarized Alfven waves with the same helicity and propagation direction but with different wave numbers. What is observed is contrary to the previous belief that incoherent Alfven waves are stable against decay: in a low beta plasma (beta = 0.2) the growth of backscattered Alfven waves, which are opposite in helicity and propagation direction from the original Alven waves, can be clearly seen. In a high beta plasma (beta = 2.0), on the other hand, no backscattered Alfven waves are observed. These results are consistent with the expectation from the theory of the parametric decay instability developed for a coherent Alfven wave. It is also shown that incoherent Alfven waves in the solar wind can decay parametrically in the region of 4-20 RS where beta is sufficiently low. For the decay process to work, the period of Alfven waves should be less than several minutes.

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