Electromagnetic solitary vortices in a rotating plasma

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Abstract
The nonlinear equations describing drift‐Alfvén solitary vortices in a low β, rotating plasma are derived. Two types of solitary vortex solutions along with their corresponding nonlinear dispersion relations are obtained. Both solutions have the localized coherent dipolar structure. The first type of solution belongs to the family of the usual Rossby or drift wave vortex, while the second type of solution is intrinsic to the electromagnetic perturbation in a magnetized plasma and is a complicated structure. While the first type of vortex is a solution to a second‐order differential equation the second one is the solution of a fourth‐order differential equation intrinsic to the electromagnetic problem. The fourth‐order vortex solution has two intrinsic space scales in contrast to the single space scale of the previous drift vortex solution. With the second short scale length the parallel current density at the vortex interface becomes continuous. As special cases the rotational electron drift vortex and the rotational ballooning vortex also are given.

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