Parametric decay of oblique Alfvén waves in two-dimensional hybrid simulations

Abstract

Certain types of plasma waves are known to become parametrically unstable under specific plasma conditions, in which the pump wave will decay into several daughter waves with different wavenumbers and frequencies. In the past, the related plasma instabilities have been treated analytically for various parameter regimes and by use of various numerical methods, yet the oblique propagation with respect to the background magnetic field has rarely been dealt with in two dimensions, mainly because of the high computational demand. Here we present a hybrid-simulation study of the parametric decay of a moderately oblique Alfv´en wave having elliptical polarization. It is found that such a compressive wave can decay into waves with higher and lower wavenumbers than the pump.