Nonlinear Alfvén Waves in a Compressible Viscous Fluid

Abstract

Nonlinear Alfvén waves in a compressible viscous fluid with thermal and electrical conductivities in the presence of an external magnetic field are investigated by using a nonlinear perturbation method. In the lowest order of perturbation, it is found that the system of equations for the Alfvén waves can be reduced to a nonlinear integro-differential equation. It is shown that in the case of steady propagation this equation has solutions representing the Alfvén shock waves.