The characteristics of hydromagnetic surface waves propagating along theinterface of a compressible cylindrical plasma column surrounded by neutralgas embedded in a steady magnetic field along the axis of the cylinder arestudied by varying the ratio of the magnetic field and the relative density ofthe two media. Symmetric and asymmetric modes are found to exist. When Alfvenspeed `vA' is less than the sound speed `s' in the neutral gas thesymmetric mode suffers lower cut-off in k for propagation. The cut-offwindow is narrowed when the magnetic field in the neutral gas is increased.For vA>s, the density of the neutral gas is found to suppress,restrict to a certain window, and allow the free propagation of both modes.There exists a critical magnetic field ratio for certain environments, inwhich both slow and fast surface waves are present simultaneously in symmetricand asymmetric modes. The findings for a special case are found to be inagreement with those obtained for an isolated magnetic flux tube studied earlier.
Effects of bias magnetic field on plasma ejection and dynamic characteristics of a coaxial gun operated in gas-puffed mode