Coronal waves: propagation in the multi-fluid description

Area of Science:

• Plasma Physics
• Solar Physics
• Astrophysics

Background:

• Coronal plasma is a dynamic environment where wave phenomena are crucial.
• Standard magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) models often neglect important kinetic effects like ion-cyclotron waves.
• Understanding wave propagation is key to explaining energy transport and heating mechanisms in the solar corona.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate wave propagation in low-beta coronal plasma.
• To incorporate ion-cyclotron wave effects by using a collisionless multi-fluid model, going beyond traditional MHD.
• To identify potential mechanisms for coronal heating through wave analysis.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a collisionless multi-fluid model, neglecting electron inertia to include ion-cyclotron wave effects.
• Performed a Fourier plane-wave perturbation analysis.
• Numerically solved the derived dispersion relations for two- and three-fluid models.

Main Results:

• Presented dispersion curves for the solar corona using representative plasma parameters.
• Identified the presence of specific resonance frequencies within the analyzed plasma conditions.
• Demonstrated that these resonance frequencies are a consequence of the multi-fluid approach and ion-cyclotron effects.

Conclusions:

• The identified resonance frequencies may play a significant role in the heating of the solar corona.
• The multi-fluid model provides a more comprehensive description of wave phenomena in coronal plasma compared to MHD.
• This research offers insights into energy transfer processes in astrophysical plasmas.