The structure of hydromagnetic shock waves

Abstract

We discuss the structure of hydomagnetic shock waves of various types. The plasma is treated in the two fluid approximation and coffisional transport coefficients are used. This treatment should be valid in a collisional plasma subject to the usual caveat about the use of transport coefficients in situations where the density, temperature, etc., may change significantly over a mean free path. The approach may also have some validity for collisionless shocks if the dissipation mechanisms involve instabilities of sufficiently fine scale and high frequency that they can be described by effective transport coefficients.