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Gravitational instability in isotropic MHD plasma waves

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Abstract

The effect of compressive viscosity, thermal conductivity and radiative heat-loss functions on the gravitational instability of infinitely extended homogeneous MHD plasma has been investigated. By taking in account these parameters we developed the six-order dispersion relation for magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves propagating in a homogeneous and isotropic plasma. The general dispersion relation has been developed from set of linearized basic equations and solved analytically to analyse the conditions of instability and instability of self-gravitating plasma embedded in a constant magnetic field. Our result shows that the presence of viscosity and thermal conductivity in a strong magnetic field substantially modifies the fundamental Jeans criterion of gravitational instability.

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Acknowledgements

I am thankful to the editor and anonymous referees for the evaluation of my paper.

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Correspondence to Alemayehu Mengesha Cherkos.

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Cherkos, A.M. Gravitational instability in isotropic MHD plasma waves. J Astrophys Astron 39, 22 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12036-018-9518-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12036-018-9518-5

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