Behavior of Torsional Alfven Waves and Field Line Resonance on Rotating Magnetars

Abstract

Torsional Alfven waves are likely excited with bursts in rotating magnetars. These waves are probably propagated through corotating atmospheres toward a vacuum exterior. We have studied the physical effects of the azimuthal wave number and the characteristic height of the plasma medium on wave transmission. In this work, explicit calculations were carried out based on the three-layered cylindrical model. We found that the coupling strength between the internal shear and the external Alfven modes is drastically enhanced, when resonance occurs in the corotating plasma cavity. The spatial structure of the electromagnetic fields in the resonance cavity is also investigated when Alfven waves exhibit resonance.