Resistive effects on Alfvén wave heating

Abstract

We consider the effects of resistive dissipation on energy absorption by spatially localized Alfvén waves which form a part of the continuous spectrum of ideal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). We demonstrate that the strong absorption rate found in ideal MHD is unaltered for plasma resistivities of the order found in tokamaks, thus implying the possibility of effective heating of these machines by Alfvén waves.