Alfvén solitons in the solar wind

Abstract

The interaction of circularly‐polarized Alfvén waves with the surrounding plasma in high speed solar wind streams is investigated. Alfvén wave modulational instability is discussed and nonlinear envelope soliton solutions of the magnetohydrodynamic equations are introduced. The characteristics of these Alfvén solitons are compared with observational results obtained from Helios I and II. A model of the expected turbulent spectrum due to a collection of such solitons is constructed and its radial dependence is investigated, again along with comparison to Helios data.