FAST WAVES IN A SMOOTH CORONAL SLAB

Abstract

This work investigates the effect of transverse density structuring in coronal slab-like waveguides on the properties of fast waves. We generalized previous results obtained for the exponential and Epstein profiles to the case of an arbitrary transverse density distribution. The criteria are given to determine the possible (trapped or leaky) wave regime, depending on the type of density profile function. In particular, there are plasma slabs with transverse density structuring that support pure trapped fast waves for all wavelengths. Their phase speed is nearly equal to the external Alfven speed for the typical parameters of coronal loops. Our findings are obtained on the basis of Kneser’s oscillation theorem. To confirm the results, we analytically solved the wave equation evaluated at the cutoff point and the original wave equation for particular cases of transverse density distribution. We also used the WKB method and obtained approximate solutions of the wave equation at the cutoff point for an arbitrary transverse density profile. The analytic results were supplemented by numerical solutions of the obtained dispersion relations. The observed high-quality quasi-periodic pulsations of flaring loops are interpreted in terms of the trapped fundamental fast-sausage mode in a slab-like coronal waveguide.