Abstract
It is shown theoretically that efficient ion heating occurs by nonlinear Landau damping because of the self‐interaction of ion Bernstein waves, where heating efficiency, nonlinear damping of ion Bernstein waves, nonlinear wave–particle coupling coefficients, and virtual waves have sharp maxima at ω≂(m/2)ωci (m=3,5,7). Ion heating depends on kνti/ ωci and becomes significantly large for kνti/ ωci ≲0.1.