Periodic Coronal Rain Driven by Self-consistent Heating Process in a Radiative Magnetohydrodynamic Simulation

Abstract The periodic coronal rain and in-phase radiative intensity pulsations have been observed in multiple wavelengths in recent years. However, due to the lack of three-dimensional coronal magnetic fields and thermodynamic data in observations, it remains challenging to quantify the coronal heating rate that drives the mass cycles. In this work, based on the MURaM code, we conduct a three-dimensional radiative magnetohydrodynamic simulation spanning from the convective zone to the corona, where the solar atmosphere is heated self-consistently through dissipation resulting from magnetoconvection. For the first time, we model the periodic coronal rain in an active region. With a high spatial resolution, the simulation well resembles the observational features across different extreme-ultraviolet wavelengths. These include the realistic interweaving coronal loops, periodic coronal rain, and periodic intensity pulsations, with two periods of 3.0 hr and 3.7 hr identified within one loop system. Moreover, the simulation allows for a detailed three-dimensional depiction of coronal rain on small scales, revealing adjacent shower-like rain clumps ∼500 km in width and showcasing their multithermal internal structures. We further reveal that these periodic variations essentially reflect the cyclic energy evolution of the coronal loop under thermal nonequilibrium state. Importantly, as the driver of the mass circulation, the self-consistent coronal heating rate is considerably complex in time and space, with hour-level variations in 1 order of magnitude, minute-level bursts, and varying asymmetry reaching ten times between footpoints. This provides an instructive template for the ad hoc heating function and further enhances our understanding of the coronal heating process.