Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 2002
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002apj...565..630a&link_type=abstract
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 565, Issue 1, pp. 630-633.
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
4
Instabilities, Sun: Corona, Sun: Magnetic Fields
Scientific paper
A chromosphere of partially ionized atoms in a turbulent, magnetic, solar-type star may be subject to a thermal instability due to ionization, which we propose in this paper. The instability occurs when changing magnetic fields cause ion heating so that a proton-electron pair are heated preferentially with respect to neutral atoms. This preferential heating, when partial ionization is present, causes any small temperature change to be amplified. An increase in temperature increases the ionization, which in turn increases the local heating. Similarly, a decrease in temperature decreases the ionization, which decreases the heating. The layer of instability occurs between two stable layers: the chromosphere, in which the ionization is too low, and the corona, in which the ionization is essentially complete. Such an atmosphere tends to be bimodal; it is either fully neutral or fully ionized. We use the models of Fontenla and coworkers to demonstrate the instability, but any magnetic stellar model in which ions are heated preferentially over neutral hydrogen will exhibit the same instability.
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