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Hamilton & Wu 2003
Hamilton, R.L. and Wu, C.C. (2003). An exact solution for the dispersive Alfven switch-on shock. Journal of Geophysical Research 108: doi: 10.1029/2002JA009653. issn: 0148-0227.

An exact solution for the dispersive Alfven switch-on shock is found in the case of weak nonlinearity, weak dispersion, and weak damping. Two singular and apparently nonphysical solutions are found as well. The switch-on shock solution is shown to reduce, in the appropriate limits, to two documented special cases of the shock: one case being a description of the planar shock without dispersion and the other being an asymptotic description of the circularly polarized wave standing upstream from the shock in the dispersive case. The solution developed here provides the complete shock structure for either case. This exact solution may serve as a convenient basis for an analytical study of the stability of dispersive switch-on shocks.

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Abstract

Keywords
Space Plasma Physics, Shock waves, Space Plasma Physics, Nonlinear phenomena, Mathematical Geophysics, Modeling, Magnetospheric Physics, MHD waves and instabilities
Journal
Journal of Geophysical Research
http://www.agu.org/journals/jb/
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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