The effect of artificial heating on the phase mixing of high frequency Alfvén wave in coronal loops

Phase mixing of Alfvén waves in coronal loops has long been considered a candidate to (partially) address the coronal heating problem. However, it has been argued that some coronal loop models used to study wave heating are not self-consistent, because the heating generated by phase mixing of Alfvén waves may be insufficient to maintain the density structure required for phase mixing. In this paper, we use an artificial background heating profile to create and maintain the transverse density profile, then vary its size to examine its influence on the wave-heating process. Using the Lare2D code, a coronal loop model is created featuring field-aligned thermodynamic equilibrium and a cross-field density profile generated and maintained by an artificial background heating profile. The background heating profile is then reduced or removed, and an Alfvén wave driver is applied simultaneously.We show that phase mixing of Alfvén waves in the shell region can fully offset a small decrease in the background heating profile, and that the thermodynamic feedback is sufficiently large to affect the density profile, broadening the region where efficient heating occurs. When the heating function is removed, a sharp decrease in density occurs, and the system becomes a complex interplay between the dissipated wave energy, reduced energetic losses, and decreased plasma thermal capacity. Heating in the shell region is shown to be sufficient to slow the rate of density decrease, leading to the shell density overtaking the interior density and forming a two-peak cross-field density profile.