Solitary Waves In Plasmas And In The Atmosphere

First Published in 1992. This book arose as a result of the authors work on the review ‘Solitary Vortices in Plasmas’ written for the Soviet Journal of Plasma Physics. With the development of nonlinear wave theory some novel concepts came into use, such as solitary waves, solitary vortices, and solitons. There is still some inconsistency in the use of these terms. The study of solitary waves (solitons) should ultimately lead to a better understanding of the internal structure of elementary particles. That is why solitons are attracting great attention from physicists and mathematicians. The material presented in this book shows that solitons are also of interest in plasma physics and geophysics, where these concepts have many important applications.

Magnetized plasmas in the universe exhibit complex dynamical behavior over a huge range of scales. The fundamental mechanisms of energy transport, redistribution and conversion occur at multiple scales. The driving mechanisms often include energy accumulation, free-energy-excited relaxation processes, dissipation and self-organization. The plasma processes associated with energy conversion, transport and self-organization, such as magnetic reconnection, instabilities, linear and nonlinear waves, wave-particle interactions, dynamo processes, turbulence, heating, diffusion and convection represent fundamental physical effects. They demonstrate similar dynamical behavior in near-Earth space, on the Sun, in the heliosphere and in astrophysical environments. 'Multi-scale Dynamical Processes in Space and Astrophysical Plasmas' presents the proceedings of the International Astrophysics Forum Alpbach 2011. The contributions discuss the latest advances in the exploration of dynamical behavior in space plasmas environments, including comprehensive approaches to theoretical, experimental and numerical aspects. The book will appeal to researchers and students in the fields of physics, space and astrophysics, solar physics, geophysics and planetary science.

This book develops the subject of nonlinear plasma physics from a general physics perspective. It begins with a description of nonlinear oscillations, the parametric instability, the pendulum, and the nonlinear island overlap criterion. The Kolomogorov-Arnold-Moser (KAM) theory is analyzed. Laboratory visualizations of the KAM theory are presented for experiments in toroidal plasma confinement and rotating fluids. The subjects of transport in E x B flows and geostrophic flows are developed in parallel, stressing the generality of the Charney-Hasegawa-Mima equation. The dual nature of wave turbulence and vortex dynamics is developed for plasmas and geophysical flows. The presentation of the subject of nonlinear maps shows how maps are related to the nonlinear dynamics in plasma physics problems. Numerous space plasma and fusion physics examples are developed throughout the book. The final chapter deals with turbulence theory, renormalized mode coupling equations, and Kolomogorov-type spectra as modified for anisotropic plasmas.

These proceedings survey the latest developments in a wide area of mathematical physics as presented by internationally renowned experts. The fields surveyed are High Energy Physics, String Theory, Relativity, Astrophysics, Cosmology, Plasma Physics and Formal Aspects of Mathematical Physics. Some of the exciting topics discussed in this volume are fundamental questions about black holes and string theory, supermassive black holes, string theory and the quantum structure of space-time, AdS space-time and holography, the cosmological constant, non-commutative geometry, quantum gravity, symmetries in general relativity, recent developments in neutrino physics and astrophysical plasmas.

The book provides an extensive theoretical treatment of whistler-mode propagation, instabilities and damping in a hot, anisotropic and collisionless plasma. Most of the results are original and have never been published in a monograph on a similar subject before.

Low-frequency waves in space plasmas have been studied for several decades, and our knowledge gain has been incremental with several paradigm-changing leaps forward. In our solar system, such waves occur in the ionospheres and magnetospheres of planets, and around our Moon. They occur in the solar wind, and more recently, they have been confirmed in the Sun’s atmosphere as well. The goal of wave research is to understand their generation, their propagation, and their interaction with the surrounding plasma. Low-frequency Waves in Space Plasmas presents a concise and authoritative up-to-date look on where wave research stands: What have we learned in the last decade? What are unanswered questions? While in the past waves in different astrophysical plasmas have been largely treated in separate books, the unique feature of this monograph is that it covers waves in many plasma regions, including: Waves in geospace, including ionosphere and magnetosphere Waves in planetary magnetospheres Waves at the Moon Waves in the solar wind Waves in the solar atmosphere Because of the breadth of topics covered, this volume should appeal to a broad community of space scientists and students, and it should also be of interest to astronomers/astrophysicists who are studying space plasmas beyond our Solar System.

Deals with the theoretical, analytical and advanced numerical study of the structure and dynamics of one-dimensional as well as two- and three-dimensional solitons and nonlinear waves described by Korteweg-de Vries (KdV), Kadomtsev-Petviashvili (KP), nonlinear Schrodinger (NLS) and derivative NLS (DNLS) classes of equations.

Since the first description by John Scott Russel in 1834, the solitary wave phenomenon has attracted considerable interests from scientists. The most interesting discovery since then has been the ability to integrate most of the nonlinear wave equations which govern solitary waves, from the Korteweg-de Vries equation to the nonlinear Schrodinger equation, in the 1960's. From that moment, a huge amount of theoretical works can be found on solitary waves. Due to the fact that many physical phenomena can be described by a soliton model, applications have followed each other, in telecommunications