On nonlinear waves in Hall–MHD plasma

Abstract

AbstractLow-frequency magnetic field fluctuations are observed in space plasmas, e.g. as upstream waves at the Earth's bow shock. Such upstream waves can steepen into very large amplitude wave phenomena, e.g. short large-amplitude magnetic structures (or SLAMS for short), shocklets or discrete wave packets. Such observations motivated us to study the nonlinear behavior of low-frequency and large-amplitude plasma waves in terms of the full nonlinear Hall–MHD framework. In the case of stationary (nonlinear) waves, the Hall–MHD equations can be rewritten in the so-called Sakai–Sonnerup system of equations that describe this plasma state and provide oscillatory and solitary types of solutions. An overall parameter study on the polarization characteristics, together with the magnetic field components and density variations of the different ranges of solutions, is presented here. These results can be further on applied to the theoretical treatment of particle interaction with such waves, e.g. at shocks in space plasmas, possibly leading to particle acceleration.