Nonlinear interaction of kinetic Alfven waves and ion acoustic waves in coronal loops

Over the years, coronal heating has been the most fascinating question among the scientific community. In the present article, a heating mechanism has been proposed based on the wave-wave interaction. Under this wave-wave interaction, the high frequency kinetic Alfven wave interacts with the low frequency ion acoustic wave. These waves are three dimensionally propagating and nonlinearly coupled through ponderomotive nonlinearity. A numerical code based on pseudo-spectral technique has been developed for solving these normalized dynamical equations. Localization of kinetic Alfven wave field has been examined, and magnetic power spectrum has also been analyzed which shows the cascading of energy to higher wavenumbers, and this cascading has been found to have Kolmogorov scaling, i.e., k(-5/3). A breakpoint appears after Kolmogorov scaling and next to this spectral break; a steeper scaling has been obtained. The presented nonlinear interaction for coronal loops plasmas is suggested to generate turbulent spectrum having Kolmogorov scaling in the inertial range and steepened scaling in the dissipation range. Since Kolmogorov turbulence is considered as the main source for coronal heating; therefore, the suggested mechanism will be a useful tool to understand the mystery of coronal loop heating through Kolmogorov turbulence and dissipation. Published by AIP Publishing.