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Formation of Magnetic Switchbacks Observed by Parker Solar Probe

Magnetic switchbacks are rapid high amplitude reversals of the radial magnetic field in the solar wind that do not involve a heliospheric current sheet crossing. First seen sporadically in the seventies in Mariner and Helios data, switchbacks were later observed by the Ulysses spacecraft beyond 1 au and have been recently identified as a typical component of solar wind fluctuations in the inner heliosphere by the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft. Here we provide a simple yet predictive theory for the formation of these magnetic reversals: the switchbacks are produced by the shear of circularly polarized Alfvén waves by a transversely varying radial wave propagation velocity. We provide an analytic expression for the magnetic field variation, establish the necessary and sufficient conditions and show that the mechanism works in a realistic solar wind scenario.