Formation, structure, and stability of MHD intermediate shocks

Abstract

It was recently shown by Wu (1987) that intermediate shocks are admissible and can be formed through nonlinear wave steepening from continuous waves. In this paper, the formation, structure, and stability of intermediate shocks in dissipative MHD are considered in detail. The differences between the conventional theory and the present one are pointed out and clarified. It is shown that all four types of intermediate shocks can be formed from smooth waves. It is also shown that there are free parameters in the structure of the intermediate shocks, and that these parameters are related to the shock stability. In addition, the paper shows that a rotational discontinuity can not exist with finite width, indicates how this is related to the existence of time-dependent intermediate shocks, and shows why the conventional theory is not a good approximation to dissipative MHD solutions whenever there is rotation in magnetic field.