Two-fluid motion of plasma in Alfven waves and the heating of solar coronal loops

Taking the effect of two-fluid motion of plasma in Alfven waves into accoun t, a nonzero parallel electric held can rise within the wave itself under c ollisionless conditions. This leads to a kinetic dissipation of Alfven wave s by the wave-particle resonant interaction and electron heating along the ambient magnetic held lines. Employing the drift kinetic equation, we inves tigated this electron-heating mechanism under the cool ion approximation. T he result shows that the damping rate and the heating rate obviously depend on the strength distribution of the ambient magnetic held, and that they r each their maximum values at B-0 = B-m and B-0 = (1 + 2 alpha)B-1/2(m), res pectively, for the perturbed held of delta B proportional to B-0(alpha), wh ere B-m is the ambient magnetic field strength when upsilon(A) = upsilon(Te ). Finally, we propose that this heating mechanism can be applied to explai n the brightness distribution of solar soft X-ray coronal loops.