Ion Heating in Coronal Holes and the Fast Solar Wind: A Theoretical Model Based on Plasma Microinstabilities

University Of New Hampshire, Durham NH

Investigators

Abstract

A kinetic theory of the electron heat flux instability in low-beta solar coronal holes will be developed and its role in the heating and acceleration of the fast solar wind will be investigated. A new paradigm is advanced, wherein the electron heat flux coming from the sun is produced by nanoflares and then generates ion cyclotron waves, which subsequently heat the overlying corona. Thus the solar wind driven by ion cyclotron waves is directly coupled to the nanoflare activity. A new wave damping mechanism, involving the parametric resonance of particles with a pump wave which drives a cross-field current instability, and the waves generated by the instability, will be modeled analytically and numerically. Finally, a kinetic theory of ion heating in the fast solar wind as a result of this cross-field current instability will be investigated.