Dispersive Alfvén Waves: Lab Verification of Theory for Inertial, Kinetic, and In-between

Details Dispersive Alfvén Waves: Lab Verification of Theory for Inertial, Kinetic, and In-between Dispersive Alfvén Waves: Lab Verification of Theory for Inertial, Kinetic, and In-between

Dec 2003

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003agufmsm21a..03k&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2003, abstract #SM21A-03

Physics

2431 Ionosphere/Magnetosphere Interactions (2736), 2471 Plasma Waves And Instabilities, 2736 Magnetosphere/Ionosphere Interactions, 2772 Plasma Waves And Instabilities

Scientific paper

Shear Alfvén waves are thought to play a significant role in several regions of near-Earth space including the plasma sheet, magnetopause, and auroral zone. The interesting physics occurs when the waves have narrow perpendicular structure such that the perpendicular scale is of the order of the ion acoustic gyroradius or the electron skin depth. Despite the importance of these waves, there are few experimental tests of the basic theory of these wave for conditions for which finite kperpendicular to is important. We present the results of a series of laboratory, measurements of the shear Alfvén wave dispersion relation for waves in the inertial (Vth << VA) and kinetic regimes (Vth >> VA)as well as for when the waves are in-between (Vth ≈ VA). The measurements were performed at the LArge Plasm Device at UCLA using the University of Iowa Arbitrary Spatial Waveform antenna. This antenna allows us to probe the dispersive nature of these waves for non-negligible kperpendicular to . Examples of the kinds of waveforms which can be generated are shown to demonstrate the flexibility of the system. By comparing the arrival times of the waves at spatially separated points, the wave phase velocity is determined which is then compared to the theoretical dispersion relation. The dispersion relation shows the expected response in parallel phase velocity with increasing perpendicular wave number. We compare two-fluid and kinetic descriptions of the dispersion and find that the best agreement between theory and experiment occurs for the warm plasma dispersion relation including collisional damping.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Dispersive Alfvén Waves: Lab Verification of Theory for Inertial, Kinetic, and In-between does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Dispersive Alfvén Waves: Lab Verification of Theory for Inertial, Kinetic, and In-between, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Dispersive Alfvén Waves: Lab Verification of Theory for Inertial, Kinetic, and In-between will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1648128