On the theory of magneto-sound double simple waves

Abstract

AbstractA two-dimensional double simple wave solution is given for both weakly and highly magnetized non-relativistic plasmas moving across the magnetic field. The dependence of the density and the magnetic field on the two independent phases, namely, components of the fluid velocity, is derived. It is shown that initial spatial distributions must satisfy a definite equation whose solution determines a special category for initial conditions. The time of blow up for any fixed value of the pair phase is found. A large general class of solutions for initial distributions is obtained. For any chosen initial distribution, the physical plane of flow at any instant of time splits into two regions, one forbidden and the other permitted. These regions are obtained numerically at a typical time for a special initial distribution. For this double wave solution, differential equations for streamlines and fluid trajectories are derived. Only for the simplest cases can the corresponding curves be completely integrated and these are given in this paper. The results are qualitatively similar to the one-dimensional case derived by Stenflo and Shukla.