Stability of circularly polarized Alfvén waves

Abstract. We consider one-dimensional motions of plasmas described by the system of ideal magnetohydrodynamic equations. We show that a circularly polarized one-dimensional Alfvén wave propagating along constant magnetic field is an exact solution of this system. The dis-persion equations governing the stability of a circularly polarized Alfvén wave is derived. This equation is used to study the wave stability with respect to normal modes. The concept of abso-lute and convective instability is introduced. The recent results on the absolute and convective instability of circularly polarized Alfvén waves is presented and briefly discussed