Current Sheet Formation in the Solar Corona---Topological Considerations

Physics – Plasma Physics

Scientific paper

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Scientific paper

An outstanding problem in solar physics has been to understand how the solar corona, with its temperature of millions of degrees, can be so much hotter than the underlying photosphere, which is typically of only a few thousand degrees. A simple model has been proposed for the heating of low-β, low resistivity plasmas, such as the solar corona, which possess highly tangled magnetic fields, and which evolve very slowly from external stresses compared to a typical Alfven crossing time. These plasmas are considered to evolve ``quasi-statically,'' i.e. arbitrarily close to equilibrium at all stages in their evolution. In the model, the heating has been assumed to result from the formation of regions of intense electrical current, or current sheets. A key ingredient in this model has been the topological restrictions imposed on current sheets, owing to the fact that the low-β property constrains current to flow only along the magnetic field lines. Assuming that the most probable sites for the formation of current sheets are closed loops of magnetic field, an estimate has been made of the statistical properties of current sheets. The special role of magnetic neutral points has been considered, and the implications for coronal heating have been discussed.

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