Hydromagnetic wave heating of the galactic corona

The rate at which hydromagnetic wave energy is dissipated in a galactic corona will be a very sensitive function of temperature when the dissipation occurs primarily through the non-linear decay of Alfven waves by the production of sound waves. In wave driven wind models of a corona the large dependence of the dissipation rate on temperature can lead to the temperature being an extremely slowly varying function of density, in harmony with the very uniform observed C IV to Si IV abundance ratios in the galactic halo gas. (author)