Linear modes in the partially ionized heliosphere plasma (1012.0940v1)

Abstract: The heliosphere is predominantly a partially ionized plasma that consists of electrons, ions and significant neutral atoms. Nonlinear interactions amongst these species take place through direct collision or charge exchange processes. These interactions modify linear and non linear properties of the plasma. In this work, we develop a one dimensional linear theory to investigate linear instabilities in such system. In our model, the electrons and ions are described by a single fluid compressible magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model and are coupled self-consistently to the neutral fluid via compressible hydrodynamic equations. The coupling is mediated by the charge exchange process. Based on our self-consistent analysis, we find that the charge exchange coupling is more effective at larger length scales, and Alfv\'en waves are not affected by the charge exchange coupling. By contrast, the fast and slow waves are driven linearly unstable.