Abstract
The large differences in drift velocities between the solar wind protons and the picked-up ions of cometary origin cause the Alfvén waves (among others) to become unstable and generate turbulence. A self-consistent treatment of such instabilities has to take into account that these cometary ions affect the solar wind plasma in a decisive way. With the help of a previously developed formalism one finds the correct Alfvén instability criterion, which is here nondispersive, in contrast to recent calculations where the cometary ions are treated as a low-density, high-speed, and non-neutral beam through an otherwise undisturbed solar wind. The true bulk speed of the combined solar wind plus cometary ion plasma clearly shows the mass-loading and deceleration of the solar wind near the cometary nucleus, indicating a bow shock. The instability criterion is also used to determine the region upstream where the Alfvén waves can be unstable, based upon recent observations near comet Halley.
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Verheest, F. Alfvén wave plasma turbulence during solar wind-comet interaction. Astrophys Space Sci 138, 209–215 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00642879
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00642879