Force-free magnetic fields - Is there a 'loss of equilibrium'?

Details Force-free magnetic fields - Is there a 'loss of equilibrium'? Force-free magnetic fields - Is there a 'loss of equilibrium'?

Oct 1989

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1989apj...345.1034k&link_type=abstract

Astrophysical Journal, Part 1 (ISSN 0004-637X), vol. 345, Oct. 15, 1989, p. 1034-1041. Previously announced in STAR as N89-21717

Physics

76

Force-Free Magnetic Fields, Magnetic Field Configurations, Photosphere, Solar Activity, Solar Magnetic Field, Magnetic Flux, Solar Flares, Solar Physics

Scientific paper

This paper examines concept in solar physics that is known as loss of equilibrium in which a sequence of force-free magnetic fields, said to represent a possible quasi-static evolution of solar magnetic fields, reaches a critical configuration beyond which no acceptable solution of the prescribed form exists. This concept is used to explain eruptive phenomena ranging from solar flares to coronal mass ejections. Certain sequences of force-free configurations are discussed that exhibit a loss of equilibrium, and it is argued that the concept is devoid of physical significance since each sequence is defined a way that does not represent an acceptable thought experiment. For example, the sequence may be defined in terms of a global constraint on the boundary conditions, or the evolution of the sequence may require the creation of mgnetic flux that is not connected to the photosphere and is not present in the original configuration. The global constraints typically occur in using the so-called generating function method. An acceptance thought experiment is proposed to specify the field configuration in terms of photospheric boundary conditions comprising the normal component of the field and the field-line connectivity. Consider a magnetic-field sequence that, when described in terms of a generating function, exhibits a loss of equilibrium and show that, when one instead defines the sequence in terms of the corresponding boundary conditions, the sequence is well behaved.

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