ANALYTIC SOLUTIONS FOR TRUNCATED PLASMONS

Abstract

We present a new plasmon model for a cometary clump moving supersonically in an environment with a non-zero gas pressure. We find that the environmental pressure produces a cutoff in the wings of the cometary clump, therefore resulting in quite "stubby" plasmons for a large range of flow Mach numbers. We derive a relation between the length-to-width ratio of the plasmon and the Mach number M of the flow, which could be used to directly derive M from observations of (appropriate) cometary clumps.