High-pressure limit of magnetosonic waves ($v_s^2\gg v_a^2$)

For sound speed $v_s$ much larger than Alfvén speed $v_a$, and angle $\theta$ between the wavevector and magnetic field, the fast magnetosonic wave has $v_f^2=v_s^2+v_a^2{\sin }^2\theta +O(v_a^4/v_s^2)$. The slow magnetosonic wave has $v_{\mathrm{slow}}^2=v_a^2{\cos }^2\theta [1-(v_a^2/v_s^2){\sin }^2\theta +O(v_a^4/v_s^4)]$. The fast mode is predominantly longitudinal sound. The slow mode becomes almost incompressible, polarized in the plane of the wavevector and magnetic field; the Alfvén wave is polarized perpendicular to that plane. The latter two are predominantly magnetic-tension waves with equal leading phase speeds.

The high-pressure limit of the slow magnetosonic wave approaches an incompressible polarization in the plane of the background magnetic field and wavevector, perpendicular to the latter. It has the displayed leading dispersion relation, the same as the out-of-plane Alfvén wave. Magnetic tension is the restoring force, and pressure balances the compressive component of the magnetic force. In exactly incompressible homogeneous ideal magnetohydrodynamics it is one of the two transverse magnetic polarizations.