STEADY-STATE MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMIC PLASMA-FLOW PAST CONDUCTING SPHERE

An analytic solution to the problem of strongly magnetized plasma flow past a smooth, conducting sphere is considered. The magnetic field is taken to be uniform at very large distances and the sphere is assumed to be unmagnetized. In addition, the flow speed is assumed to be subs onic and super-Alfvenic. It is shown that a steady state solution is p ossible only if the frozen-in condition can be relaxed near the surfac e of the sphere. By inclusion of a small resistivity, the presence of two, nested boundary layers near the surface is demonstrated. The magn etic field is shown to drape about the sphere with a scale size of the order of the square root of the resistivity. (C) 1997 American Instit ute of Physics.