WAVES IN A RAREFIED IONIZED GAS PROPAGATED TRANSVERSE TO AN EXTERNAL MAGNETIC FIELD

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Abstract
Waves being propagated in a rarefied and fully ionized gas and transverse to an external magnetic field have been studied, particularly hydromagnetic waves. Three modes of waves, in which the perturbed magnetic field is parallel to the external magnetic field, are found to be propagated. In a high-frequency limit, they tend to electromagnetic waves, electron sound waves, and ion sound waves. In the condition that the Alfvén velocity is greater than the ion sound velocity but smaller than the light velocity, the last mode tends to a hydromagnetic wave in the low-frequency limit. The other two modes of waves can be propagated only at frequencies higher than the critical frequencies, both of which almost equal the electron plasma frequency. The condition that hydromagnetic waves should be attenuated severely due to collisions between electrons and ions has been derived.

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