ABSTRACT. The analytic study of coronal loop oscillations in equilibrium states with thin nonuniform boundary layers is extended by a numerical investigation for one-dimensional nonuniform equilibrium states. The frequency and the damping time of the ideal kink quasi mode are calculated in fully resistive MHD. In this numerical investigation there is no need to adopt the assumption of a thin nonuniform boundary layer, which is essential for analytic theory. An important realization is that analytical expressions for the damping rate that are equivalent for thin nonuniform layers give results differing by a factor of 2 when they are used for thick nonuniform layers. Analytical theory for thin nonuniform layers does not allow us to discriminate between these analytical expressions. The dependence of the complex frequency of the kink mode on the width of the nonuniform layer, on the length of the loop, and on the density contrast between the internal and the external region is studied and is compared with analytical theory, which is valid only for thin boundaries. Our numerical results enable us to show that there exists an analytical expression for thin nonuniform layers that might be used as a qualitative tool for extrapolation into the regime of thick nonuniform layers. However, when the width of the nonuniform layer is varied, the differences between our numerical results and the results obtained with the version of the analytical approximation that can be extended into the regime of thick nonuniform layers are still as large as 25%.

Subject headings: MHD; Sun: corona; Sun: magnetic fields

Print publication: Issue 2 (2004 May 10)
Received 2003 May 23, accepted for publication 2004 January 27