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Parametric decay of oblique arc‐polarized Alfvén waves
Author(s) -
Del Zanna Luca
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2001gl012911
Subject(s) - physics , polarization (electrochemistry) , amplitude , oblique case , magnetohydrodynamics , magnetohydrodynamic drive , monochromatic color , computational physics , parametric statistics , nonlinear system , electromagnetic radiation , wave propagation , elliptical polarization , circular polarization , mechanics , classical mechanics , optics , linear polarization , plasma , quantum mechanics , linguistics , philosophy , statistics , mathematics , chemistry , microstrip , laser
The long‐term nonlinear evolution of monochromatic large‐amplitude Alfvén waves in oblique propagation is studied via one‐dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) numerical simulations. Arc‐polarized waves, which are exact solutions for non‐parallel propagation and are observed in solar wind data, are shown to be subject to parametric decay instabilities just like the well studied case of circularly polarized waves, not only when arc polarization is used as initial condition but also when this state is reached after nonlinear evolution of linearly polarized waves.