Nonlinear stability of fluid and plasma equilibria

A comprehensive overview is presented of recent observational and theoretical results on solar wind structures and fluctuations and magnetohydrodynamic waves and turbulence, with preference given to phenomena in the inner heliosphere. Emphasis is placed on the progress made in the past decade in the understanding of the nature and origin of especially small-scale, compressible and incompressible fluctuations. Turbulence models to describe the spatial transport and spectral transfer of the fluctuations in the inner heliosphere are discussed, and results from direct numerical simulations are dealt with. Intermittency of solar wind fluctuations and their statistical distributions are briefly investigated. Studies of the heating and acceleration effects of the turbulence on the background wind are critically surveyed. Finally, open questions concerning the origin, nature and evolution of the fluctuations are listed, and possible avenues and perspectives for future research are outlined.

MHD structures, waves and turbulence in the solar wind : observations and theories

Four-wave interactions are shown to play an important role in the evolution of the spectrum of surface gravity waves. This fact follows from direct simulations of an ensemble of ocean waves using the Zakharov equation. The theory of homogeneous four-wave interactions, extended to include effects of nonresonant transfer, compares favorably with the ensemble-averaged results of the Monte Carlo simulations. In particular, there is good agreement regarding spectral shape. Also, the kurtosis of the surface elevation probability distribution is determined well by theory even for waves with a narrow spectrum and large steepness. These extreme conditions are favorable for the occurrence of freak waves.

/pdf/nonlinear-four-wave-interactions-and-freak-waves-360c27qd68.pdf

Nonlinear Four-Wave Interactions and Freak Waves

The one-dimensional two-species quantum hydrodynamic model is considered in the limit of small mass ratio of the charge carriers. Closure is obtained by adopting an equation of state pertaining to a zero-temperature Fermi gas for the electrons and by disregarding pressure effects for the ions. By an appropriate rescaling of the variables, a nondimensional parameter H, proportional to quantum diffraction effects, is identified. The system is then shown to support linear waves, which in the limit of small H resemble the classical ion-acoustic waves. In the weakly nonlinear limit, the quantum plasma is shown to support waves described by a deformed Korteweg–de Vries equation which depends in a nontrivial way on the quantum parameter H. In the fully nonlinear regime, the system also admits traveling waves which can exhibit periodic patterns. The quasineutral limit of the system is also discussed.

/pdf/quantum-ion-acoustic-waves-136h1p5x4f.pdf

Quantum ion-acoustic waves

The ion‐acoustic solitons are investigated in three‐component plasmas, whose constituents are electrons, positrons, and singly charged ions. It is found that the presence of the positron component in such a multispecies plasma can result in reduction of the ion‐acoustic soliton amplitudes.

John E. Scherer

Papers

Methods in nonlinear plasma theory