Damping mechanisms for oscillations in solar prominences

TL;DR

This paper reviews various theoretical damping mechanisms for small amplitude oscillations in solar prominences, comparing their effectiveness and applying recent results to prominence seismology for better plasma diagnostics.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review of recent theoretical damping mechanisms for prominence oscillations and discusses their application in prominence seismology.

Findings

Thermal non-adiabatic effects contribute to damping.

Mass flows influence oscillation attenuation.

Resonant damping in non-uniform media is significant.

Abstract

Small amplitude oscillations are a commonly observed feature in prominences/filaments. These oscillations appear to be of local nature, are associated to the fine structure of prominence plasmas, and simultaneous flows and counterflows are also present. The existing observational evidence reveals that small amplitude oscillations, after excited, are damped in short spatial and temporal scales by some as yet not well determined physical mechanism(s). Commonly, these oscillations have been interpreted in terms of linear magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves, and this paper reviews the theoretical damping mechanisms that have been recently put forward in order to explain the observed attenuation scales. These mechanisms include thermal effects, through non-adiabatic processes, mass flows, resonant damping in non-uniform media, and partial ionization effects. The relevance of each mechanism is assessed by comparing the spatial and time scales produced by each of them with those obtained from observations. Also, the application of the latest theoretical results to perform prominence seismology is discussed, aiming to determine physical parameters in prominence plasmas that are difficult to measure by direct means.