MHD waveguides in space plasma

Abstract

The waveguide properties of two characteristic formations in the Earth’s magnetotail—the plasma sheet and the current (neutral) sheet—are considered. The question of how the domains of existence of different types of MHD waveguide modes (fast and slow, body and surface) in the (k, ω) plane and their dispersion properties depend on the waveguide parameters is studied. Investigation of the dispersion relation in a number of particular (limiting) cases makes it possible to obtain a fairly complete qualitative pattern of all the branches of the dispersion curve. Accounting for the finite size of perturbations across the wave propagation direction reveals new additional effects such as a change in the critical waveguide frequencies, the excitation of longitudinal current at the boundaries of the sheets, and a change in the symmetry of the fundamental mode. Knowledge of the waveguide properties of the plasma and current sheets can explain the occurrence of preferred frequencies in the low-frequency fluctuation spectra in the magnetotail. In satellite observations, the type of waveguide mode can be determined from the spectral properties, as well as from the phase relationships between plasma oscillations and magnetic field oscillations that are presented in this paper.