Superoscillations in solar MHD waves and their possible role in heating coronal loops

TL;DR

This paper investigates superoscillations in coronal magnetoacoustic waves, revealing they can generate high-frequency oscillations that efficiently dissipate energy, potentially contributing significantly to coronal heating.

Contribution

It introduces an analytic model showing superoscillations occur during wave mode transitions in coronal loops, highlighting a new localized heating mechanism in the solar corona.

Findings

Superoscillations reach frequencies 10 times higher than normal.

High-frequency oscillations produce strong local gradients for dissipation.

Heating rates from superoscillations can offset radiative losses.

Abstract

Aims: To study the presence of superoscillations in coronal magnetoacoustic waves and its possible role in heating coronal loops through the strong and localized gradients they generate on the wave. Methods: An analytic model is built for the transition between a sausage and a kink wave modes propagating along field lines in the corona. We compute in this model the local frequencies, the wave gradients and the associated heating rates due to compressive viscosity. Results: We find superoscillations associated with the transition between wave modes accompanying the wave dislocation that shifts through the wave domain. Frequencies 10 times higher than the normal frequency are found. This means that a typical 3-minute coronal wave will locally oscillate in 10 to 20 seconds. Such high frequencies bring up strong gradients that efficiently dissipate the wave through compressive viscosity. We compute the associated heating rates. Locally, they are very strong, largely compensating typical radiative losses. Conclusions: We find a new heating mechanism associated to magnetoacoustic waves in the corona. Heating due to superoscillations only happens along particular field lines with small cross sections, comparable in size to coronal loops, inside the much larger magnetic flux tubes and wave propagation domain.