Eur. Phys. J. D 64, 393-404 (2011)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2011-10585-6

Regular Article

Characteristics of plasma Beltrami states¹

J.M. Burgers Centre and Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Department of Physics, Eindhoven University of Technology, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands

^a Permanent Address: University of Central Florida, Orlando, 32816-1364 FL, USA. e-mail: bhimsens@mail.ucf.edu

Received: 13 October 2010
Received in final form: 4 March 2011
Published online: 2 August 2011

Abstract

Beltrami states in several models of plasma dynamics – incompressible magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model, barotropic compressible MHD model, incompressible Hall MHD model, barotropic compressible Hall MHD model, electron MHD model, barotropic compressible Hall MHD with electron inertia model, are considered. Notwithstanding the diversity of the physics underlying the various models, the Beltrami states are shown to exhibit some common features like – certain robustness with respect to the plasma compressibility effects (albeit in the barotropy assumption), the Bernoulli condition. The Beltrami states for these models are deduced by minimizing the appropriate total energy while keeping the appropriate total helicity constant.