A Self-consistent Mechanism for Heating the Solar Magnetic Atmosphere by Kinetic Alfvén Waves

Abstract Coronal heating remains a long-standing problem in solar and astrophysical plasmas. Alfvén waves (AWs) can carry sufficient energy into the solar atmosphere, but how this energy is dissipated into particle heating is not well understood. In this work, based on the ubiquitous inhomogeneity in the solar magnetically structured atmosphere, we propose a self-consistent mechanism for heating the solar magnetic atmosphere by kinetic Alfvén waves (KAWs), which involves the resonant mode conversion (RMC) of AWs to KAWs. Our finding reveals that KAWs can be effectively generated via the RMC of AWs in the solar magnetically structured atmosphere, with the RMC efficiency E KAW / E AW  ∼ 0.01–0.1. Based on the estimation of the AW intensity in different environments of the solar magnetic atmosphere, the KAWs generated by the RMC of AWs are sufficient to sustain the heating of this atmosphere. This work not only bridges the gap between the large-scale AW energy flux and the small-scale kinetic processes essential for heating, but also establishes a unified mechanism for heating the solar magnetic atmosphere by KAWs.