Transverse propagation of low frequency waves in a switched magnetoplasma medium

Summary form only given. It is known that the effect of switching a magnetoplasma medium on a traveling wave within the radio approximation (neglecting ion motion), for the case of transverse propagation, where the electric field is normal to the direction of propagation, splits the original wave into four new extraordinary waves whose frequencies are different from the incident wave frequency (ω₀). However, in the low-frequency region ω≪ω_be, called the hydromagnetic range, where ω_be is the electron gyrofrequency, radio approximations are not valid and ion motion has to be taken into account. In the hydromagnetic range the characteristic equation is a quartic. This equation is given. The variation in the frequency and power of the first wave with the incident wave frequency is shown. It is observed that in the very-low-frequency range there is nearly 50% power in this wave for Ω_bi=1.0, where Ω_bi is the ratio of the ion gyrofrequency to the ion plasma frequency