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Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamic Wave Excitation by Laser Pulse in a Magnetized Plasma

Plasma Physics 2026-02-13 v1 Mathematical Physics math.MP

Abstract

In the study of plasma, particularly in applications involving strong laser-plasma interactions, the propagation of a strong electromagnetic wave induces relativistic velocities in the electron flow. Given such conditions, the wave propagating through the plasma experiences modulational instability. In this paper, we investigate this instability using magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations. In the relativistic limit, the motion of ions can be neglected due to their significant inertia, allowing us to treat the ions as a background fluid. This simplification enables us to apply perturbation techniques to the electron fluid equations, leading to the derivation of the nonlinear wave equation in the form of the Nonlinear Schr\"odinger Equation (NLSE). We also explore the relationship between wave dispersion and the conditions for instability. We derive the maximum growth rate of the modulational instability and analyze its dependence on plasma parameters and wave intensity in the context of relativistic magnetized plasma, providing quantitative insights into the instability dynamics. Finally, we examine aspects of the perturbed NLSE using the Bogoliubov-Mitropolsky perturbation approach, treating real and imaginary coefficients separately, which explicitly incorporates both Nonlinear Landau Damping (NLLD) and growth-damping effects.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2510.16362,
  title  = {Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamic Wave Excitation by Laser Pulse in a Magnetized Plasma},
  author = {Zohreh Hashempour and Mehdi Nasri Nasrabadi and Nora Nassiri-Mofakham and Hamidreza Daniali},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.16362},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

14 pages, no figures. Accepted in Pramana Journal of Physics