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Collisionless shock waves in a plasma in a weak magnetic field

ABI

Abstract

The relationship is investigated between laminar and turbulent theories of the structure of a collisionless shock wave. For pe ≫ pi, where pi, pe are the ion and electron pressures, a laminar structure of the shock wave may be constructed in terms of the `solitary' wave with thickness of the order of the Debye length. When pi ≳ pe the principal part within the shock front is played by scattering of ions by small-scale field fluctuations which result from anisotropic instability. The thickness of the front is in order of magnitude

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Cited by 10 references