Numerical simulations of driven MHD waves in coronal loops

Abstract

The solar corona, modeled by a low-β, resistive plasma slab, sustains MHD wave propagations due to footpoint motions in the photosphere. Simple test cases are undertaken to verify the code. Uniform, smooth and steep density, magnetic profile and driver are considered. The numerical simulations presented here focus on the evolution and properties of the Alfven, fast and slow waves in coronal loops. The plasma responds to the footpoint motion by kink or sausage waves depending on the amount of shear in the magnetic field. The larger twist in the magnetic field of the loop introduces more fast-wave trapping and destroys initially developed sausage-like wave modes. The transition from sausage to kink waves does not depend much on the steep or smooth profile. The slow waves develop more complex fine structures, thus accounting for several local extrema in the perturbed velocity profiles in the loop. Appearance of the remnants of the ideal singularities characteristic of ideal plasma is the prominent feature of this study. The Alfven wave which produces remnants of the ideal x−1 singularity, reminiscent of Alfven resonance at the loop edges, becomes less pronounced for larger twist. Larger shear in the magnetic field makes the development of pseudo-singularity less prominent in case of a steep profile than that in case of a smooth profile. The twist also causes heating at the edges, associated with the resonance and the phase mixing of the Alfven and slow waves, to slowly shift to layers inside the slab corresponding to peaks in the magnetic field strength. In addition, increasing the twist leads to a higher heating rate of the loop. Remnants of the ideal log ¦x¦ singularity are observed for fast waves for larger twist. For slow waves they are absent when the plasma experiences large twist in a short time. The steep profiles do not favour the creation of pseudo-singularities as easily as in the smooth case.