An Alfvén wave, named after Hannes Alfvén, is a type of magnetohydrodynamic (or hydromagnetic) wave.

An Alfvén wave in plasma is produced by ions low frequency oscillations about their equilibrium positions. It is represented by a sine-wave shaped magnetic field variation confined to a plane.

In an electrically charged gas, the magnetic field wave period vibrations are perpendicular to the direction of propagation of the wave (known as a transverse wave).

See also

• Ambiplasma
• E-layer
• List of astronomical topics
• List of wave topics
• Magnetogravity
• Nobel Prize in Physics
• Standing wave

Further readings

• Alfvèn, H. "Cosmic Plasma". Holland. 1981.
• Otani, N. F., "Application of Nonlinear Dynamical Invariants in a Single Electromagnetic Wave to the Study of the Alfvén-Ion-Cyclotron Instability", Physics of Fluids 31, 1456-1464 (1988).
• Silberstein, M., and N. F. Otani, "Computer simulation of Alfvén waves and double layers along auroral magnetic field lines", Journal of Geophysical Research 99, 6351-6365 (1994). (PDF)
• Cramer, N. F., and S. V. Vladimirov, "Alfvén Waves in Dusty Interstellar Clouds". PASA, 14 (2).
• Otani, N. F., "The Alfvén ion-cyclotron instability, simulation theory and techniques". Journal of Computational Physics 78, 251-277 (1988).

External links and references

• Weisstein, Eric W., "Alfvén Wave". Wolfram Research, Inc., Champaign, IL. 2004.
• Otani, N. F., "Typical Alfvén wave simulation". Particle Simulations of Auroral Electron Acceleration. 2004.
• Maggs, J., et. al., "Laboratory Studies of Space Relevant Alfvén Wave Processes". Department of Physics and Astronomy, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA. 2004. (PDF)
• Jaun, Andre, et. al., "Global waves in resistive and hot Tokamak plasmas - Alfvén wave". Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (Switzerland). Comput. Phys. Commun. vol.92, 1995.
• Vondrak, Richard, "Alfvén Wave". Laboratory for Extraterrestrial Physics, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD USA. 2004.
• Champeaux, Stephanie, Dimitri Laveder, Thierry Passot, and Pierre-Louis Sulem, "Alfvén Wave Filamentation". 2004.