3,674 research outputs found
On the penetration of meridional circulation below the solar convection zone
Meridional flows with velocities of a few meters per second are observed in
the uppermost regions of the solar convection zone. The amplitude and pattern
of the flows deeper in the solar interior, in particular near the top of the
radiative region, are of crucial importance to a wide range of solar
magnetohydrodynamical processes. In this paper, we provide a systematic study
of the penetration of large-scale meridional flows from the convection zone
into the radiative zone. In particular, we study the effects of the assumed
boundary conditions applied at the convective-radiative interface on the deeper
flows. Using simplified analytical models in conjunction with more complete
numerical methods, we show that penetration of the convectively-driven
meridional flows into the deeper interior is not necessarily limited to a
shallow Ekman depth but can penetrate much deeper, depending on how the
convective-radiative interface flows are modeled.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures. Subitted to Ap
Fast magnetic reconnection in the plasmoid-dominated regime
A conceptual model of resistive magnetic reconnection via a stochastic
plasmoid chain is proposed. The global reconnection rate is shown to be
independent of the Lundquist number. The distribution of fluxes in the
plasmoids is shown to be an inverse square law. It is argued that there is a
finite probability of emergence of abnormally large plasmoids, which can
disrupt the chain (and may be responsible for observable large abrupt events in
solar flares and sawtooth crashes). A criterion for the transition from
magnetohydrodynamic to collisionless regime is provided.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur
Two-scale structure of the electron dissipation region during collisionless magnetic reconnection
Particle in cell (PIC) simulations of collisionless magnetic reconnection are
presented that demonstrate that the electron dissipation region develops a
distinct two-scale structure along the outflow direction. The length of the
electron current layer is found to decrease with decreasing electron mass,
approaching the ion inertial length for a proton-electron plasma. A surprise,
however, is that the electrons form a high-velocity outflow jet that remains
decoupled from the magnetic field and extends large distances downstream from
the x-line. The rate of reconnection remains fast in very large systems,
independent of boundary conditions and the mass of electrons.Comment: Submitted to Physical Review Letters, 4 pages, 4 figure
Particle Acceleration in Turbulence and Weakly Stochastic Reconnection
Fast particles are accelerated in astrophysical environments by a variety of
processes. Acceleration in reconnection sites has attracted the attention of
researchers recently. In this letter we analyze the energy distribution
evolution of test particles injected in three dimensional (3D)
magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of different magnetic reconnection
configurations. When considering a single Sweet-Parker topology, the particles
accelerate predominantly through a first-order Fermi process, as predicted in
previous work (de Gouveia Dal Pino & Lazarian, 2005) and demonstrated
numerically in Kowal, de Gouveia Dal Pino & Lazarian (2011). When turbulence is
included within the current sheet, the acceleration rate, which depends on the
reconnection rate, is highly enhanced. This is because reconnection in the
presence of turbulence becomes fast and independent of resistivity (Lazarian &
Vishniac, 1999; Kowal et al., 2009) and allows the formation of a thick volume
filled with multiple simultaneously reconnecting magnetic fluxes. Charged
particles trapped within this volume suffer several head-on scatterings with
the contracting magnetic fluctuations, which significantly increase the
acceleration rate and results in a first-order Fermi process. For comparison,
we also tested acceleration in MHD turbulence, where particles suffer
collisions with approaching and receding magnetic irregularities, resulting in
a reduced acceleration rate. We argue that the dominant acceleration mechanism
approaches a second order Fermi process in this case.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figur
Magnetic Reconnection with Radiative Cooling. I. Optically-Thin Regime
Magnetic reconnection, a fundamental plasma process associated with a rapid
dissipation of magnetic energy, is believed to power many disruptive phenomena
in laboratory plasma devices, the Earth magnetosphere, and the solar corona.
Traditional reconnection research, geared towards these rather tenuous
environments, has justifiably ignored the effects of radiation on the
reconnection process. However, in many reconnecting systems in high-energy
astrophysics (e.g., accretion-disk coronae, relativistic jets, magnetar flares)
and, potentially, in powerful laser plasma and z-pinch experiments, the energy
density is so high that radiation, in particular radiative cooling, may start
to play an important role. This observation motivates the development of a
theory of high-energy-density radiative magnetic reconnection. As a first step
towards this goal, we present in this paper a simple Sweet--Parker-like theory
of non-relativistic resistive-MHD reconnection with strong radiative cooling.
First, we show how, in the absence of a guide magnetic field, intense cooling
leads to a strong compression of the plasma in the reconnection layer,
resulting in a higher reconnection rate. The compression ratio and the layer
temperature are determined by the balance between ohmic heating and radiative
cooling. The lower temperature in the radiatively-cooled layer leads to a
higher Spitzer resistivity and hence to an extra enhancement of the
reconnection rate. We then apply our general theory to several specific
astrophysically important radiative processes (bremsstrahlung, cyclotron, and
inverse-Compton) in the optically thin regime, for both the zero- and
strong-guide-field cases. We derive specific expressions for key reconnection
parameters, including the reconnection rate. We also discuss the limitations
and conditions for applicability of our theory.Comment: 31 pages, 1 figur
Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection via Alfven Eigenmodes
We propose an analytic approach to the problem of collisionless magnetic
reconnection formulated as a process of Alfven eigenmodes' generation and
dissipation. Alfven eigenmodes are confined by the current sheet in the same
way that quantum mechanical waves are confined by the tanh^2 potential. The
dynamical time scale of reconnection is the system scale divided by the
eigenvalue propagation velocity of the n=1 mode. The prediction of the n=1 mode
shows good agreement with the in situ measurement of the
reconnection-associated Hall fields
Self-Regulation of Solar Coronal Heating Process via Collisionless Reconnection Condition
I propose a new paradigm for solar coronal heating viewed as a
self-regulating process keeping the plasma marginally collisionless. The
mechanism is based on the coupling between two effects. First, coronal density
controls the plasma collisionality and hence the transition between the slow
collisional Sweet-Parker and the fast collisionless reconnection regimes. In
turn, coronal energy release leads to chromospheric evaporation, increasing the
density and thus inhibiting subsequent reconnection of the newly-reconnected
loops. As a result, statistically, the density fluctuates around some critical
level, comparable to that observed in the corona. In the long run, coronal
heating can be represented by repeating cycles of fast reconnection events
(nano-flares), evaporation episodes, and long periods of slow magnetic stress
build-up and radiative cooling of the coronal plasma.Comment: 4 pages; Phys. Rev. Lett., in pres
The spectral evolution of impulsive solar X-ray flares. II.Comparison of observations with models
We study the evolution of the spectral index and the normalization (flux) of
the non-thermal component of the electron spectra observed by RHESSI during 24
solar hard X-ray flares. The quantitative evolution is confronted with the
predictions of simple electron acceleration models featuring the soft-hard-soft
behaviour. The comparison is general in scope and can be applied to different
acceleration models, provided that they make predictions for the behavior of
the spectral index as a function of the normalization. A simple stochastic
acceleration model yields plausible best-fit model parameters for about 77% of
the 141 events consisting of rise and decay phases of individual hard X-ray
peaks. However, it implies unphysically high electron acceleration rates and
total energies for the others. Other simple acceleration models such as
constant rate of accelerated electrons or constant input power have a similar
failure rate. The peaks inconsistent with the simple acceleration models have
smaller variations in the spectral index. The cases compatible with a simple
stochastic model require typically a few times 10^36 electrons accelerated per
second at a threshold energy of 18 keV in the rise phases and 24 keV in the
decay phases of the flare peaks.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication by A&
Current sheet bifurcation and collapse in electron magnetohydrodynamics
Inertial effects in nonlinear magnetic reconnection are studied within the
context of 2D electron magnetohydrodynamics (EMHD) with resistive and viscous
dissipation. Families of nonlinear solutions for relevant current sheet
parameters are predicted and confirmed numerically in all regimes of interest.
Electron inertia becomes important for current sheet thicknesses below
the inertial length . In this case, in the absence of electron
viscosity, the sheet thickness experiences a nonlinear collapse. Viscosity
regularizes solutions at small scales. Transition from resistive to viscous
regimes shows a nontrivial dependence on resistivity and viscosity, featuring a
hysteresis bifurcation. In all accessible regimes, the nonlinear reconnection
rate is found to be explicitly independent of the electron inertia and
dissipation coefficients.Comment: submitted to publicatio
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