Laboratory observation of Alfvén resonance

Abstract

We present laboratory observations of shear Alfvén wave resonances in a cylindrical plasma column. Fourier data are presented which show the existence of many standing eigenmodes in the shear Alfvén frequency range. Harmonic frequency dependence on ambient →B is presented for three resonances. A wavelet analysis is used to show the lifetimes of the identified harmonic modes. Experimental Q values for the first five eigenfrequencies are measured and compared to theoretical values.