Alfvén modes in a two-species magnetoplasma with anisotropic perturbation pressure-fluid and kinetic calculations

The octic fluid dispersion equation, the kinetic Boltxmann-Vlasov equation and the MHD (scalar pressure) analysis, programmed for a two-species collisionless magnetoplasma in a form permitting direct comparison between them, have been applied to the study of the Alfven modes in both low- and high-β plasmas. In the low-β regime all methods give essentially the same solutions for the isotropic fast magnetosonic and the field-guided shear Alfven modes. The real part of the refractive index of the field-guided slow magnetosonic acoustic mode is almost identical in the fluid and kinetic analyses, but is 50% too high in the MHD analysis owing to neglect of the trace-free part of the pressure tensor which drives almost, half of the acoustic energy flux. The strong damping of the acoustic mode in both low- and high-β plasmas is drastically reduced by increase of electron temperature, whereas a moderate increase in the perpendicular ion temperature is sufficient to eliminate shear Alfven damping in high-β plasmas and even to produce wave growth, the effect being more pronounced the higher the plasma β. The fluid analysis shows the electromagnetic energy flux to be negligible in the acoustic mode, in which the acoustic flux is driven both by the trace-carrying anti trace-free parts of the pressure tensor, but is usually the dominant component in the (fast) magnetosonic mode.