MAGNETOSONIC SHOCK-WAVES PROPAGATING OBLIQUELY IN A WARM COLLISIONAL PLASMA

Two dimensional shock structures of fast and slow magnetosonic waves, propagating in a dissipative warm magnetized plasma with a flow velocity are studied. The nonlinear evolution equation derived for such plasma, where dissipation is provided by electron ion collisions, is found to be a combination of Kadomtsev Petviashvili and Burger equation. Numerical solutions of this equation are obtained by transforming it to a moving frame of reference. These solutions, with appropriate boundary conditions show the development of shock structures both for fast and slow modes. Dependence of shock strength on plasma beta, angle of inclination of the magnetic field with the direction of flow velocity are shown. The most interesting feature is that, while for slow wave the shock strength persists for all angles of propagation but for the fast wave the shock strength vanishes below a certain critical Mach number and above a certain angle between the propagation vector and flow velocity.