Hydromagnetic waves for a collisionless plasma in strong magnetic fields

Abstract

A hydrodynamic system of equations, valid in the limit in which the Larmor radius and the electron to ion mass ratio are both zero, and including the thermo-dynamic variables and the energy equation of the electrons, is used to investigate the propagation of small-amplitude waves in a collisionless heat-conducting plasma. The result is compared with that derived from the Chew, Goldberger & Low equations. It is found that for zero heat flux, the inclusion of the electron pressure does not change the number and characteristic of the modes but modifies the mirror stability criterion. In the general case, the phase speed is symmetric with respect to two axes: one parallel to the heat flux vector and the other normal to it. The heat flux generates a new mode and couples strongly the slow and fast magnetosonic modes whose wavenumber vectors have projections in the positive flux vector direction, giving rise to a new overstability whose existence does not depend on the ion anisotropy.