Nonlinear dynamics of large-amplitude, small-scale Alfvén waves

Abstract

We study large-amplitude, very oblique Alfvén waves at low β, with small gradient length scales, comparable to the ion inertial scale di. Such waves have large density fluctuations and slight dispersion from finite-frequency and finite-ion sound radius effects. We derive a weakly nonlinear evolution equation governing the behavior of the waves in one dimension and categorize the different solitons appearing in different regimes: the regular solitons involve full rotations of the transverse magnetic field similar to modified Korteweg–de Vries (mKdV) solitons (our nonlinear equation reduces to the mKdV equation in the long-wavelength limit). However, for sufficiently small soliton widths, some become singular, small-amplitude solitons with density discontinuities and, are, thus expected to become strongly dissipative in a real plasma. These solutions may be useful in explaining some aspects of the sharp, ion-scale magnetic field rotations (switchbacks) observed in the near-Sun solar wind by Parker Solar Probe.