Wave propagation in equal-mass plasmas

Abstract

We study linear wave propagation in the case of equal-mass plasmas. We show that the special symmetry of such plasmas simplifies the problem and causes the disappearance of well-known phenomena such as Faraday rotation and whistler wave modes. We exploit the Symmetry of the problem to derive analytical expressions for wave propagation for various fluid models of the plasma. We also find which distribution functions will retain the symmetry properties of the fluid models.