McMurdo, M. orcid.org/0009-0001-1997-4361, Ballai, I. orcid.org/0000-0002-3066-7653, Verth, G. orcid.org/0000-0002-9546-2368 et al. (2 more authors) (2023) Phase mixing of propagating Alfvén waves in a single-fluid partially ionized solar plasma. The Astrophysical Journal, 958 (1). 81. ISSN 0004-637X
Abstract
The phase mixing of Alfvén waves is one of the most promising mechanisms for the heating of the solar atmosphere. The damping of waves in this case requires small transversal scales, relative to the magnetic field direction; this requirement is achieved by considering a transversal inhomogeneity in the equilibrium plasma density profile. Using a single-fluid approximation of a partially ionized chromospheric plasma, we study the effectiveness of the damping of phase-mixed shear Alfvén waves and investigate the effect of varying the ionization degree on the dissipation of waves. Our results show that the dissipation length of shear Alfvén waves strongly depends on the ionization degree of the plasma, but more importantly, in a partially ionized plasma, the damping length of shear Alfvén waves is several orders of magnitude shorter than in the case of a fully ionized plasma, providing evidence that phase mixing could be a large contributor to heating the solar chromosphere. The effectiveness of phase mixing is investigated for various ionization degrees, ranging from very weakly to very strongly ionized plasmas. Our results show that phase-mixed propagating Alfvén waves in a partially ionized plasma with ionization degrees in the range μ = 0.518–0.657, corresponding to heights of 1916–2150 km above the solar surface, can provide sufficient heating to balance chromospheric radiative losses in the quiet Sun.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2023. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI. |
Keywords: | Magnetohydrodynamics; Solar magnetic fields; Space plasmas; Alfvén waves |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > School of Mathematics and Statistics (Sheffield) The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Engineering (Sheffield) > Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 23 Nov 2023 16:42 |
Last Modified: | 23 Nov 2023 16:42 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Astronomical Society |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.3847/1538-4357/ad0364 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:205534 |