Amplitude limits and nonlinear damping of shear-Alfvén waves in high-beta low-collisionality plasmas
- Creators
- Squire, J.
- Schekochihin, A. A.
- Quataert, E.
Abstract
This work, which extends Squire et al (Astrophys. J. Lett. 2016 830 L25), explores the effect of self-generated pressure anisotropy on linearly polarized shear-Alfvén fluctuations in low-collisionality plasmas. Such anisotropies lead to stringent limits on the amplitude of magnetic perturbations in high-β plasmas, above which a fluctuation can destabilize itself through the parallel firehose instability. This causes the wave frequency to approach zero, 'interrupting' the wave and stopping its oscillation. These effects are explored in detail in the collisionless and weakly collisional 'Braginskii' regime, for both standing and traveling waves. The focus is on simplified models in one dimension, on scales much larger than the ion gyroradius. The effect has interesting implications for the physics of magnetized turbulence in the high-β conditions that are prevalent in many astrophysical plasmas.
Additional Information
© 2017 IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI. Received 11 January 2017; Accepted 6 April 2017; Published 17 May 2017. It is a pleasure to thank S Cowley, M Kunz, S Bale, C H K Chen, S Balbus, L Sironi, F Rincon, and M Strumik for useful and enlightening discussions. JS is endebted to Merton College for supporting a stay in Oxford where some of this work was carried out. JS and AAS would also like to thank the Wolfgang Pauli Institute in Vienna for its hospitality during the 9th Plasma Kinetics Working Group Meeting. JS was funded in part by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation through Grant GBMF5076 to Lars Bildsten, Eliot Quataert and E Sterl Phinney. AAS was supported in part by grants from UK STFC and EPSRC. EQ was supported by Simons Investigator awards from the Simons Foundation and NSF grant AST 13-33612.Attached Files
Published - Squire_2017_New_J._Phys._19_055005.pdf
Submitted - 1701.03175.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 77524
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20170517-104128598
- GBMF5076
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
- Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
- Simons Foundation
- AST 13-33612
- NSF
- Created
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2017-05-17Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2022-07-12Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics