Kinetic Alfvénic cnoidal waves in Saturnian magnetospheric plasmas

Abstract

The characteristics of kinetic Alfvénic cnoidal waves (KACWs) in Saturn's magnetosphere plasma composed of two temperature superthermal electrons and inertial ions are presented. The Korteweg–de Vries (KdV) equation and its cnoidal wave solution are derived by adopting reductive perturbation technique. Only positive potential kinetic Alfvénic cnoidal and solitary waves are evolved in Saturnian magnetospheric plasma. The influence of superthermality of cold electrons, concentration of hot electrons, plasma beta and angle of propagation of the wave with respect to the magnetic field has been analyzed on the characteristics of KACWs. The findings of this investigation may shed the light on the possible existence of KACWs and acceleration as well as energy transportation in space plasmas especially in Saturn's magnetosphere.

Keywords:

• Kinetic Alfvén waves
• cnoidal waves
• solitons
• two temperature electrons
• KdV equation

Acknowledgments

NSS gratefully acknowledges the support for this research work from Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India, New Delhi under DST-SERB project No. CRG/2019/003988. KS thankfully acknowledges financial support by the project FSU-2021-012/8474000352 “Modeling of Nonlinear Waves and Shocks in Space and Laboratory Plasmas” (PI: Ioannis Kourakis), funded by Khalifa University of Science and Technology (Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India, New Delhi under DST-SERB project No. CRG/2019/003988; the Khalifa University of Science and Technology (Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates), project FSU-2021-012/8474000352 “Modeling of Nonlinear Waves and Shocks in Space and Laboratory Plasmas” (PI: Ioannis Kourakis).