Seminars

Seminars

Lecturer: Prof. Anatol Guglielmi (Institute of Physics of the Earth, Moscow)
Date: 2004-11-04 00:00
Place:

Ponderomotive forces in space physics.

This report consists of two parts. The first part in effect answers the question: Why is it in many cases preferable to use ponderomotive forces instead of the Lorentz force in space physics, especially when studying the acceleration of ions by electromagnetic waves? We shall consider the Abraham, Barlow, Lundin-Hultqvist, and Miller ponderomotive forces, as well as the so-called Bolotovsky-Serov ponderomotive drift. The second part is devoted to some interesting manifestations of the ponderomotive forces in space plasmas acceleration of the polar wind and deceleration of the solar wind, plasma cavity formation, anharmonicity of the standing Alfvén waves, resonant acceleration of heavy ions, etc. The most important conclusion is that ponderomotive acceleration of ions by Alfvén waves is a fundamental process in terrestrial magnetospheric- and celestial plasmas. Ponderomotive acceleration may transfer energy and momentum to plasmas, leading to plasma outflow at small- as well as large scales in space.

Created 2004-12-06 16:24:41 by Rick McGregor
Last changed 2004-12-06 16:24:41 by Rick McGregor