Theory of Waves in Inhomogeneous Warm Plasmas

Abstract

A theory is developed for the behavior of waves in a warm inhomogeneous plasma in the presence of a magnetic field perpendicular to the density gradients of the unperturbed plasma. The full set of the Maxwell-Vlasov equations is solved by use of perturbation methods. The theory is valid for arbitrary directions of wave propagation and both for strong as well as for weak magnetic fields, including zero. It is shown that this theory possesses as limiting cases previously derived results, and we work out as an example of the theory a quantitative analysis of the O'Brien, Gould, and Parker experiment.