SIMBAD references

The properties of linear acoustic waves propagating in the interstellar medium, which is a mixture of electron-proton plasma and hydrogen atoms, are studied analytically. The plasma component interacts with hydrogen atoms through resonant charge exchange between the atoms and protons. To make the problem tractable, only short-wavelength disturbances are considered. Namely, the wavelength is assumed to be small as compared with the mean free path of atoms with respect to charge exchange. It is shown that short waves are damped out due to the charge exchange process, and the magnitude of decrement increases with the cross-section for charge exchange, number density of atoms and sound speed. In the first approximation, decrement does not depend on the wavelength, and acoustic waves are dispersionless. The advantage of our model is fully kinetic treatment of the interstellar atom motion.