Heating of the Solar Corona by Dissipative Alfven Solitons

Abstract

Solar photospheric convection drives myriads of dissipative Alfven solitons (hereinafter called alfvenons) capable of accelerating electrons and ions to energies of hundreds of keV and producing the X-ray corona. Alfvenons are exact solutions of two-fluid equations for a collisionless plasma and represent natural accelerators for conversion of the electromagnetic energy flux driven by convective flows into kinetic energy of charged particles in space and astrophysical plasmas. Their properties have been experimentally verified in the magnetosphere, where they accelerate auroral electrons to tens of keV.