Physics
Scientific paper
Sep 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008espm...12.3.40w&link_type=abstract
"12th European Solar Physics Meeting, Freiburg, Germany, held September, 8-12, 2008. Online at http://espm.kis.uni-freiburg.de/,
Physics
Scientific paper
The braiding of the solar corona via photospheric motions with subsequent relaxation and magnetic reconnection is one of the most widely debated ideas of solar physics. Standard theories in the area are based on the two-dimensional paradigm for reconnection - where thin current sheets are needed for rapid reconnection - and they therefore seek to demonstrate the development, in generic situations, of the necessary short length-scales in the magnetic field. However, in realistic three-dimensional situations it is the integrated parallel electric field along field lines that is the crucial quantity for reconnection. In resistive MHD this corresponds to the integrated parallel current and is a key difference from the 2D case.
A mixed analytical-numerical model is used to reassess magnetic braiding in view of recent developments in 3D reconnection theory. A realistic braided field containing only small amounts of twist undergoes ideal relaxation to attain a force-free equilibrium; that equilibrium is found to be smooth, with large-scale field and current structures. Significantly however, the equilibrium is shown to have a highly filamentary integrated parallel current structure with extremely short length-scales. In a resistive solar plasma such fine scales would lead to the generation of super-Alfvenic flows, causing a loss of equilibrium. Implications for reconnection and coronal heating are discussed.
Hornig Gunnar
Pontin David
Wilmot-Smith A.
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