Enhanced Phase Mixing of Torsional Alfvén Waves in Stratified and Divergent Solar Coronal Structures, Paper II: Nonlinear Simulations

Abstract

We use MHD simulations to detect the nonlinear effects of torsional Alfvén wave propagation in a potential magnetic field with exponentially divergent field lines, embedded in a stratified solar corona. In Paper I we considered solutions to the linearised governing equations torsional Alfvén wave propagation and showed, using a finite difference solver we developed named WiggleWave, that in certain scenarios wave damping is stronger than what would be predicted by our analytic solutions. In this paper we consider whether damping would be further enhanced by the presence of nonlinear effects. We begin by deriving the nonlinear governing equations for torsional Alfvén wave propagation and identifying the terms that cause coupling to magnetosonic perturbations. We then compare simulation outputs from an MHD solver called Lare3d, which solves the full set of nonlinear MHD equations, to the outputs from WiggleWave to detect nonlinear effects such as: the excitation of magnetosonic waves by the Alfvén wave, self-interaction of the Alfvén wave through coupling to the induced magnetosonic waves, and the formation of shock waves higher in the atmosphere caused by the steepening of these compressive perturbations. We suggest that the presence of these nonlinear effects in the solar corona would lead to Alfvén wave heating that exceeds the expectation from the phase mixing alone.

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