Propagation of waves in weakly ionized two-fluid plasmas. II. Nonlinear Alfvénic waves

Abstract

Weakly ionized plasmas can be found in the lower layers of the solar and stellar atmospheres and in structures such as prominences and spicules. A variety of density perturbations and bulk flows detected in these environments have been explained as the result of the ponderomotive force generated by nonlinear Alfvénic waves. In addition, the dissipation of the energy carried by these waves leads to heating of the plasma. Here, we use a two-fluid model to study the combined influence of Hall's current and elastic collisions between ions and neutrals on the propagation of linearly and circularly polarized transverse waves in weakly ionized plasmas. We derive analytical expressions for the damping and heating rates, showing their dependence on the strength of the collisional coupling and on the polarization state. We also perform numerical simulations to investigate the nonlinear generation of density perturbations and bulk flows related to the ponderomotive force and the energy dissipation by the ion-neutral interaction. We find that the nonlinear perturbations associated with the circularly polarized eigenmodes do not show the oscillatory motions typically caused by linearly polarized eigenmodes, but they retain the non-oscillatory bulk flows. We also briefly discuss how in weak coupling conditions the nonlinear dynamics of the neutral fluid is mainly driven by the wave energy dissipation while the ponderomotive force only directly acts on the charged fluid, resulting in different amplitudes of the longitudinal motions and the perturbations of density and temperature.