Strongly nonlinear magnetosonic waves and ion acceleration

Abstract

The electromagnetic fields associated with a nonlinear compressional Alfven wave propagating perpendicular to an external magnetic field of arbitrary strength are derived. For the strongly magnetized and high phase velocity case relevant for ion acceleration to high energies, we show that the electric field increases proportionally only to the external magnetic field O (B{sub ext}[in T] MV/cm) and the electrostatic potential increases with the square root of the ion-to-electron mass ratio {radical}M{sub i}/m{sub e}.