Latent heating of coronal loops

The theory of weakly nonlinear slow magnetosonic waves in thin flux tubes is developed. A Korteweg-de Vries equation is derived for slow body waves. The analysis of solitary and periodic solutions shows that the nonlinear waves produce running narrowings of the tube. The similarity of the shallow-water theory and the thin-flux-tube approximation helps to outline the peaking and breaking of the nonlinear slow body waves. It appears that the running narrowing of the tube works as the de Laval nozzle in generating a cool supersonic jet and a subsequent shock that heats the plasma. The presented theory of nonlinear slow body waves suggests a mechanism of coronal loop heating, which meets many of the observational constraints.