The universally growing mode in the solar atmosphere: coronal heating by drift waves

Abstract

The heating of the plasma in the solar atmosphere is discussed within both frameworks of fluid and kinetic drift wave theory. We show that the basic ingredient necessary for the heating is the presence of density gradients in the direction perpendicular to the magnetic field vector. Such density gradients are a source of free energy for the excitation of drift waves. We use only well established basic theory, verified experimentally in laboratory plasmas. Two mechanisms of the energy exchange and heating are shown to take place simultaneously: one due to the Landau effect in the direction parallel to the magnetic field, and another one, stochastic heating, in the perpendicular direction. The stochastic heating i) is due to the electrostatic nature of the waves, ii) is more effective on ions than on electrons, iii) acts predominantly in the perpendicular direction, iv) heats heavy ions more efficiently than lighter ions, and v) may easily provide a drift wave heating rate that is orders of magnitude above the value that is presently believed to be sufficient for the coronal heating, i.e., $\simeq 6\cdot 10^{-5}$J/(m${}^3$s) for active regions and $\simeq 8\cdot 10^{-6}$J/(m${}^3$s) for coronal holes. This heating acts naturally through well known effects that are, however, beyond the current standard models and theories.

To appear in MNRAS

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Cited by in corpus (12)

• Drift waves in the corona: heating and acceleration of ions at frequencies far below the gyro frequency
• Kinetic instability of drift-Alfven waves in solar corona and stochastic heating
• Electric fields in solar magnetic structures due to gradient driven instabilities: heating and acceleration of particles
• Viscosity effects on waves in partially and fully ionized plasma in magnetic field
• Magnetic helicity signature and its role in regulating magnetic energy spectra and proton temperatures in the solar wind
• Multi-Fluid Simulations of Upper Chromospheric Magnetic Reconnection with Helium-Hydrogen mixture
• Self Heating of Corona by Electrostatic Fields Driven by Sheared Flows
• Drift wave stabilized by an additional streaming ion or plasma population
• Solar nanoflares and other smaller energy release events as growing drift waves
• Thresholdless stochastic particle heating by a single wave
• Different effects of suprathermal electrons and ions on drift instabilities in non-uniform plasmas
• Energy in density gradient