ENERGY PROPAGATION BY TRANSVERSE WAVES IN MULTIPLE FLUX TUBE SYSTEMS USING FILLING FACTORS

In the last few years, it has been found that transverse waves are present at all times in coronal loops or spicules. Their energy has been estimated with an expression derived for bulk Alfven waves in homogeneous media, with correspondingly uniform wave energy density and flux. The kink mode, however, is localized in space with the energy density and flux dependent on the position in the cross-sectional plane. The more relevant quantities for the kink mode are the integrals of the energy density and flux over the cross-sectional plane. The present paper provides an approximation to the energy propagated by kink modes in an ensemble of flux tubes by means of combining the analysis of single flux tube kink oscillations with a filling factor for the tube cross-sectional area. This finally allows one to compare the expressions for energy flux of Alfven waves with an ensemble of kink waves. We find that the correction factor for the energy in kink waves, compared to the bulk Alfven waves, is between f and 2f, where f is the density filling factor of the ensemble of flux tubes.