Proton heating via nonresonant scattering off intrinsic Alfvénic turbulence.

A novel yet unsophisticated theory is proposed to show that low-beta protons can be efficiently heated by enhanced Alfvén waves. The present research is motivated by a plasma physics issue relevant to the explanation of hot stellar coronas observed with x-ray telescopes. The efficient heating is attributed to nonresonant wave-particle scattering that tends to randomize proton motion in directions transverse to the ambient magnetic field.