Laboratory observation of a nonlinear interaction between shear Alfvén waves

Abstract

An experimental investigation of nonlinear interactions between shear Alfvén waves in a laboratory plasma is presented. Two Alfvén waves, generated by a resonant cavity, are observed to beat together, driving a low frequency nonlinear psuedo-mode at the beat frequency. The psuedo-mode then scatters the Alfvén waves, generating a series of sidebands. The observed interaction is very strong, with the normalized amplitude of the driven psuedo-mode comparable to the normalized magnetic field amplitude ($\delta B/B$) of the interacting Alfvén waves.

arXiv comment10 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett

References in corpus (1)

• MHD Turbulence Revisited

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Astrophysical gyrokinetics: kinetic and fluid turbulent cascades in magnetized weakly collisional plasmas
• Constraints on ion vs. electron heating by plasma turbulence at low beta
• Observation of an Alfvén Wave Parametric Instability in a Laboratory Plasma
• Spectral features of solar wind turbulent plasma
• Nonlinear excitation of acoustic modes by large amplitude Alfvén waves in a laboratory plasma
• Experimental evidence of Alfvén wave propagation in a Gallium alloy
• Control of gradient-driven instabilities using shear Alfvén beat waves