Computer Science – Sound
Scientific paper
Dec 2003
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003agufmsh32c..03s&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2003, abstract #SH32C-03
Computer Science
Sound
0654 Plasmas, 7524 Magnetic Fields, 7831 Laboratory Studies, 7835 Magnetic Reconnection, 7863 Turbulence
Scientific paper
While the linear properties of plane whistler waves are well known, many new phenomena of bounded wavepackets and nonlinear effects are worth to describe. The present talk will review laboratory observations of whistler filaments, whistler vortices, whistler wings, whistler-sound modes in high-beta plasmas, nonlinear whistlers forming magnetic null points, and magnetic reconnection in EMHD plasmas. The time-varying magnetic field of a spatially bounded whistler wave packet consists of 3-D vortices. Each vortex can be decomposed into linked toroidal and poloidal field components. The self-helicity is positive for propagation along the field, negative for opposite propagation. Helicity injection from a suitable source produces unidirectional propagation. Magnetic helicity changes sign, i.e., is not conserved, when the propagation direction along B changes, for example due to reflection or propagation through a magnetic null point. In ideal EMHD the electric and magnetic forces on the electrons are equal, -n e E +J x B=0, i.e., the electron fluid is not compressed. Force-free vortices do not interact during collisions. Vortices are excited with pulsed magnetic antennas or pulsed electrodes. Both transient currents and fields can form vortices that propagate in the whistler mode. Moving dc magnets or dc current systems can also induce whistler modes in a magnetized plasma. These form a Cherenkov-like radiation pattern, a ``whistler wing.'' Nonlinear phenomena arise from wave-induced modifications of the electron temperature, density and magnetic field. In collisional plasmas electrons are heated by strong whistlers. Modifications of the classical conductivity leads to current filamentation. On a slower time scale density modifications arise from ambipolar fields associated with electron heating. In a filamentation instability a strong whistler wave is ducted along a narrow field-aligned density depression. The ion density is also modified by the ac electric field of low-frequency whistlers in high-beta plasmas. Pressure-gradient driven instabilities near the lower hybrid frequency produce coupled density and magnetic perturbations that propagate at the sound speed nearly across the field, forming a new whistler-sound mode. The net magnetic field is modified when the whistler magnetic field exceeds the background magnetic field. A field-reversed configuration (FRC) with two 3-D null points is produced. This EMHD structure does not propagate in the whistler mode. It elongates and precesses, which are manifestations of magnetic fields frozen into the electron fluid flow. The free magnetic energy is converted into electron heat by field line annihilation in the toroidal current sheet. No reconnection is seen at the 3-D spiral nulls. The energy dissipation is anomalously fast due to current-driven ion sound turbulence. In contrast to linear vortices, two FRCs do interact and merge into a single one. These basic properties of EMHD fields will be applied to cases of interest in space plasmas such as reconnection, strong turbulence, and possible active experiments. Work performed in collaboration with J.~M. Urrutia, M.~C. Griskey, and K.~D. Strohmaier with support from NSF PHY.
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