Magnetohydrodynamic waves and shock waves in relativistic plasmas

• Main Authors: Marty Chou, 周晁光
• Other Authors: 內容為英文
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2007
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/73843133124900675707

博士 === 國立中央大學 === 太空科學研究所 === 95 === In this thesis the characteristics of hydromagnetic waves and shocks are studied within the framework of relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (RMHD) theory. The general dispersion relations are derived for linear MHD waves propagating in homogeneous ultrarelativistic plasmas with isotropic and gyrotropic pressures. The characteristics of fast, intermediate and slow waves are examined in detail and the formulations cover various limits such as isothermal/adiabatic, isotropic/anisotropic and nonrelativistic/ultrarelativistic cases. As in the nonrelativistic anisotropic MHD model, the phase speed inversion and the density-magnetic field anomaly for slow waves may occur in the relativistic MHD model. Both fire-hose and mirror instabilities may be generated in the gyrotropic plasma when the temperature anisotropy becomes sufficiently large and the instability criteria are derived. The relativistic MHD shocks are studied by solving the associated jump conditions and six types of relativistic MHD shocks including fast, slow and four intermediate shocks are identified.