Laboratory Experiments on Shear Alfven Waves and Shocks

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The PIs will continue to experiment with Alfven waves and wave processes important to space plasma dynamics. They have developed a capability for launching and detecting shear Alfven waves in uniform plasmas and plasmas with controlled non-uniformities, allowing study under conditions analogous to those involved in electron and ion acceleration processes in the auroral ionosphere. The continuation will extend research in the role of Alfven waves in density striations and their contribution to plasma transport and ion heating. Complementing this study, the PI will investigate radiation of Alfven waves from narrow, modulated field aligned current channels. They will also investigate the properties of field-aligned resonances, and the behavior of Alfven wave cones in a magnetic beach. Finally, they will extend observations to the non-linear regime by investigating the propagation of a large amplitude magnetic pulse, using a pulsed slab magnetic field to generate shock waves and study their formation and propagation.