Heating of ions by low-frequency Alfven waves in partially ionized plasmas

Journal Article · Tue Mar 15 04:00:00 EDT 2011 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3555532· OSTI ID:21537257

Chuanfei, Dong ^[1]; Paty, Carol S ^[2]

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1. Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 (United States)
2. School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332 (United States)

In the solar atmosphere, the chromospheric and coronal plasmas are much hotter than the visible photosphere. The heating of the solar atmosphere, including the partially ionized chromosphere and corona, remains largely unknown. In this letter, we demonstrate that the ions can be substantially heated by Alfven waves with very low frequencies in partially ionized low-beta plasmas. This differs from other Alfven wave related heating mechanisms such as ion-neutral collisional damping of Alfven waves and heating described by previous work on resonant Alfven wave heating. We find that the nonresonant Alfven wave heating is less efficient in partially ionized plasmas than when there are no ion-neutral collisions, and the heating efficiency depends on the ratio of the ion-neutral collision frequency to the ion gyrofrequency.

• OSTI ID: 21537257
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 18; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ALFVEN WAVES
ATMOSPHERES
BEAM-PLASMA SYSTEMS
CHROMOSPHERE
COLLISIONS
DAMPING
HEATING
HYDROMAGNETIC WAVES
LOW-BETA PLASMA
PHOTOSPHERE
PLASMA
PLASMA HEATING
SOLAR ATMOSPHERE
STELLAR ATMOSPHERES