| Summary: | We aim to investigate the properties of linear Alfvén and slow magnetoacoustic waves in a partially ionized plasma in ionization non-equilibrium. The propagation characteristics of these waves are studied within the framework of a two-fluid plasma in terms of the collisional strength between heavy particles for different degrees of ionization. In the ionization non-equilibrium state the rates of ionization and recombinations are not equal. For analytical progress we assume a background that is ionization equilibrium, the non-equilibrium is driven by perturbations in the system, therefore, non-equilibrium effects are related to the perturbed state of the plasma. Using simple analytical methods, we show that ionization non-equilibrium can provide an additional coupling between ions and neutrals (implicitly a secondary damping mechanism in the collisionless limit) and this process is able to keep the neutrals in the system even in the collisionless limit. Due to the coupling between different species waves become dispersive. The present study improves our understanding of the complexity of dynamical processes partially ionized plasma in the lower solar atmosphere and solar prominences. Our results clearly show that the problem of partial ionization and non-equilibrium ionization introduce new aspects of plasma dynamics with consequences on the evolution waves and their dissipation.
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