Alfvén wave spectrum in a transversely inhomogeneous plasma with dissipation

Abstract

The spectrum of Alfven eigenmodes in a transversely inhomogeneous plasma with Ohmic dissipation is studied in the one-fluid MHD approximation. It is established that, along with a discrete spectrum of the modes confined to the plasma boundaries or the extremes of the Alfven velocity, there always exists a continuous spectrum of aperiodically damped modes, including those with arbitrarily slow damping rates. It is shown that the set of eigenmodes is complete.