Global structure and stability of MHD shock waves
Collisionless shock waves and discontinuities are commonly observed in space and astrophysical environments. Among them are the interplanetary shocks, planetary bow shocks, slow mode shocks associated with the magnetic reconnection process, and the rotational and tangential discontinuities in the solar wind. Unlike the collisional shock waves in neutral fluids, the collisionless shocks are characterized with its highly complex structure, origin of it be ascribed to the fact that the dissipation is provided via plasma waves, which are essentially driven by the gradient of the shock profile. We study kinetic structure of collisionless shock waves, as well as their stability properties, theoretically and via numerical simulations. Some particular topics being discussed recently are the structure of super-critical fast shocks, evolutionarity of intermediate shocks, wave-shock interactions, and transverse stability of localized MHD structures.

Density perturbation of MHD waves before (left hand side) and after (right hand side) it encounters a shock wave, situated at the middle of the figure. Spectral analysis of the downstream turbulence reveals that the fast mode surface wave is driven at the shock.

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