Ideal and resistive magnetohydrodynamic modes (Q1210592)

This paper gives a discussion of the analytical properties of both discrete and continuous Alfvén wave spectra in an incompressible as well as compressible plasma. Although the continuous MHD modes produced by a well-behaved initial perturbation decay according to a power law, some singular solutions exist and are found to behave differently. In particular, it is possible to exhibit the existence of a new continuous mode which decays exponentially, and not as an inverse power of time, and this exponential damping is not the consequence of a continuous variation of the magnetic field. Next, we consider resistive modes and give explicit solutions for them which are valid in the neighborhood of the Alfvén resonance layer and discuss their implications for plasma heating schemes. Finally, we study discrete and continuous Alfvén wave spectra in a compressible plasma.