Influence of a uniform coronal magnetic field on solar p modes: coupling to slow resonant MHD waves

Abstract

The influence of a constant coronal magnetic field on solar global oscillations is investigated for a simple planar equilibrium model. The model consists of an atmosphere with a constant horizontal magnetic field and a constant sound speed, on top of an adiabatic interior having a linear temperature profile. The focus is on the possible resonant coupling of global solar oscillation modes to local slow continuum modes of the atmosphere and the consequent damping of the global oscillations. In order to avoid Alfvén resonances, the analysis is restricted to propagation parallel to the coronal magnetic field. Parallel propagating oscillation modes in this equilibrium model have already been studied by Evans and Roberts (1990). However, they avoided the resonant coupling to slow continuum modes by a special choice of the temperature profile. The physical process of resonant absorption of the acoustic modes with frequency in the cusp continuum is mathematically completely described by the ideal MHD differential equations which for this particular equilibrium model reduce to the hypergeometric differential equation. The resonant layer is correctly dealt with in ideal MHD by a proper treatment of the logarithmical branch cut of the hypergeometric function. The result of the resonant coupling with cusp waves is twofold. The eigenfrequencies become complex and the real part of the frequency is shifted. The shift of the real part of the frequency is not negligible and within the limit of observational accuracy. This indicates that resonant interactions should definitely be taken into account when calculating the frequencies of the global solar oscillations.