Electromagnetic waves in inhomogeneous astrophysical plasma

Abstract

Inhomogeneities of astrophysical plasmas and magnetic fields significantly affect electromagnetic wave propagation. Waves in regularly inhomogeneous astrophysical plasmas are considered in this chapter. At the same time, the characteristics of the observed astrophysical radiation can be altered because of the scattering by chaotic macroscopic in homogeneities. We mean here the increase of pulse duration of pulsars at low frequencies due to scattering of radiation by an interstellar medium, the increase of angular size of discrete radio sources due to their eclipse by solar “extra-corona”, scintillations of discrete sources due to scattering by the interplanetary medium etc. Unfortunately, the limited size of this book prevents consideration of these effects here, so we refer the reader to the reviews [106,107], original papers [108–113] and bibliography therein. Note also that scattering by plasma particles (electrons) in strong magnetic fields may significantly affect optical and X-ray radiation of magnetic degenerate stars. These effects are considered in detail in chapter 8.