An Alfvén wave is transverse and incompressible, with displacement perpendicular to both the background magnetic field and the wavevector. Its frequency is .
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An Alfvén wave is a type of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) wave that propagates through a plasma in the presence of a magnetic field. Named after the Swedish physicist Hannes Alfvén, who first proposed their existence in 1942, these waves are significant in various astrophysical and laboratory plasma contexts.