Simulations of fully deformed oscillating flux tubes

TL;DR

This study uses 3D MHD simulations to show how transverse oscillations induce turbulence and heating throughout coronal loops, potentially explaining their heating mechanisms.

Contribution

It demonstrates that footpoint-driven kink waves can generate turbulence that fully deforms the loop cross section and spreads heating across the entire structure.

Findings

Turbulence from kink waves causes full loop deformation.

Resistive heating peaks near footpoints, viscous at the apex.

Wave heating can reach the inner loop regions.

Abstract

In recent years, a number of numerical studies have been focusing on the significance of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI) in the dynamics of oscillating coronal loops. This process enhances the transfer of energy into smaller scales, and has been connected with heating of coronal loops, when dissipation mechanisms, such as resistivity, are considered. However, the turbulent layer is expected near the outer regions of the loops. Therefore, the effects of wave heating are expected to be confined to the loop's external layers, leaving their denser inner parts without a heating mechanism. In the current work we aim to study the spatial evolution of wave heating effects from a footpoint driven standing kink wave in a coronal loop. Using the MPI-AMRVAC code, we performed ideal, three dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations of footpoint driven transverse oscillations of a cold, straight coronal flux tube, embedded in a hotter environment. We have also constructed forward models for our simulation using the FoMo code. The developed Transverse Wave Induced Kelvin-Helmholtz (TWIKH) rolls expand throughout the tube cross-section, and cover it entirely. This turbulence significantly alters the initial density profile, leading to a fully deformed cross section. As a consequence, the resistive and viscous heating rate both increase over the entire loop cross section. The resistive heating rate takes its maximum values near the footpoints, while the viscous heating rate at the apex. We conclude that even a monoperiodic driver can spread wave heating over the whole loop cross section, potentially providing a heating source in the inner loop region. Despite the loop's fully deformed structure, forward modelling still shows the structure appearing as a loop.