D{8046Garching,FederalRepublicofGermany ETHZentrum,CH{8092Zurich,Switzerland.pdfVIP

|||||||||{ Alfven Wave Solitonsand Solar Intermediate Drift Bursts M. Gudel1, A. O. Benz1, R. A. Treumann1;21Institut fur Astronomie, Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule ZurichETH Zentrum, CH{8092 Zurich, Switzerland2Max Planck-Institut fur Physik und Astrophysik, Institut fur extraterrestrische PhysikD{8046 Garching, Federal Republic of Germany ABSTRACTWe investigate stationary solutions for Alfven solitons propagating obliquely in a homogeneousmagnetic eld. Due to their dispersive nature kinetic Alfven waves can evolve into soliton likestructures which propagate at velocities of the order of the Alfven velocity in a direction inclinedto the magnetic eld. In the rst model we keep the plasma  me=mi. Kinetic Alfven solitonsin this case can propagate at Mach numbers M 1 or M 1 as dilutions or as compressions ofthe plasma density. In the second model the plasma contains two electron components, a hot oneand a cold one. We derive dierential equations for the plasma density and present examples ofnumerical solutions for the plasma density proles. We nd that both dilutive and compressionalsolitons are uniquely determined by  and the propagation velocity vector. Conditions are givenfor the existence of soliton solutions. Interactions between the hot and the cold electron componentturn out to be signicant for dilutions of the cold component. - We apply this kind of solitarydensity waves to solar intermediate drift radio bursts.Key words: kinetic Alfven waves - solitons - solar radio emission1. INTRODUCTIONMany astrophysical plasmas are known to be magnetized, as e.g. the solar atmosphere, the solarand stellar coronae, the solar wind, accretion disks, or extragalactic jets. Such magnetized plasmasallow for the propagation of Alfven waves propagating at the Alfven speed vA, a fundamentalplasma parameter depending on the gas and the magnetic pressures. It has been shown (Ref. 1)that Alfven waves can nonlinearly evolve when growing to large amplitud