ABSTRACT
What role, if any, does the geometry of the plasma equilibrium play in determining the properties of plasma waves? Clearly, geometry plays a key role for modes whose wavelengths are comparable to the dimensions of the plasma. However, it is plausible that waves whose wavelengths are much smaller than the plasma dimensions have properties that are, in a local sense, independent of the geometry. In other words, the local properties of small wavelength plasma oscillations are universal in nature. To investigate these properties, we can, to a first approximation, represent the plasma as a homogeneous equilibrium (corresponding to the limit k L → 0, where k is the magnitude of the wavevector, and L is the characteristic equilibrium lengthscale).
