The Spatial Alfvén Resonance in a Collisional Plasma

Abstract

The structure of wave fields at the spatial Alfven resonance in a cylindrical collisional plasma is studied using both a WKB analysis and a numerical solution of the wave equations. At high plasma density and low temperature the Alfven resonance leads to ohmic dissipation of wave energy in a narrow resistive layer. The enhanced b. fields in this layer allow detection of the Alfven resonance position by magnetic field probes. An experiment which reports the observation of the spatial Alfven resonance has been analysed with good agreement between the calculated and the measured fields.