Nanoflare heating model for collisionless solar corona

The problem of coronal heating remains one of the greatest unresolved problems in space science. Magnetic reconnection plays a significant role in heating the solar corona. When two oppositely directed magnetic fields come closer to form a current sheet, the current density of the plasma increases due to which magnetic reconnection and conversion of magnetic energy into thermal energy takes place. The present paper deals with a model for reconnection occurring in the solar corona under steady state in collisionless regime. The model predicts that reconnection time in the solar corona varies inversely with the cube of magnetic field and varies directly with the Lindquist number. Our analysis shows that reconnections are occurring within a time interval of 600 s in the solar corona, producing nanoflares in the energy range 10 ²¹–10 ²³ erg /s which matches with Yohkoh X-ray observations.     

Three-species collisionless reconnection: effect of O+ on magnetotail reconnection

The nature of collisionless reconnection in a three-species plasma composed of a heavy species, protons, and electrons is examined. In addition to the usual two length scales present in two-species reconnection, there are two additional larger length scales in the system: one associated with a "heavy whistler" which produces a large scale quadrupolar out-of-plane magnetic field, and one associated with the "heavy Alfvén" wave which can slow the outflow speed and thus the reconnection rate. The consequences for reconnection with O+ present in the magnetotail are discussed.     

New measure of the dissipation region in collisionless magnetic reconnection

A new measure to identify a small-scale dissipation region in collisionless magnetic reconnection is proposed. The energy transfer from the electromagnetic field to plasmas in the electron's rest frame is formulated as a Lorentz-invariant scalar quantity. The measure is tested by two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations in typical configurations: symmetric and asymmetric reconnection, with and without the guide field. The innermost region surrounding the reconnection site is accurately located in all cases. We further discuss implications for nonideal MHD dissipation.     

Two-scale structure of the electron dissipation region during collisionless magnetic reconnection

Particle-in-cell simulations of collisionless magnetic reconnection are presented that demonstrate that reconnection remains fast in very large systems. The electron dissipation region develops a distinct two-scale structure along the outflow direction. Consistent with fast reconnection, the length of the electron current layer stabilizes and decreases with decreasing electron mass, approaching the ion inertial length for a proton-electron plasma. Surprisingly, the electrons form a super-Alfvénic outflow jet that remains decoupled from the magnetic field and extends large distances downstream from the x line.     

Three-dimensional dynamics of collisionless magnetic reconnection in large-scale pair plasmas

Using the largest three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations to date, collisionless magnetic reconnection in large-scale electron-positron plasmas without a guide field is shown to involve complex interaction of tearing and kink modes. The reconnection onset is patchy and occurs at multiple sites which self-organize to form a single, large diffusion region. The diffusion region tends to elongate in the outflow direction and become unstable to secondary kinking and formation of "plasmoid-rope" structures with finite extent in the current direction. The secondary kink folds the reconnection current layer, while plasmoid ropes at times follow the folding of the current layer. The interplay between these secondary instabilities plays a key role in controlling the time-dependent reconnection rate in large-scale systems.     

Laser-induced fluorescence measurement of the ion-energy-distribution function in a collisionless reconnection experiment

Observations in space and laboratory plasmas suggest magnetic reconnection as a mechanism for ion heating and formation of non-Maxwellian ion velocity distribution functions (IVDF). Laser-induced fluorescence measurements of the IVDF parallel to the X line of a periodically driven reconnection experiment are presented. A time-resolved analysis yields the evolution of the IVDF within a reconnection cycle. It is shown that reconnection causes a strong increase of the ion temperature, where the strongest increase is found at the maximum reconnection rate. Monte Carlo simulations demonstrate that ion heating is a consequence of the in-plane electric field that forms around the X line in response to reconnection.     

Suppression of Hall-term effects by gyroviscous cancellation in steady collisionless magnetic reconnection

The formation of an ion-dissipation region, in which motions of electrons and ions decouple and fast magnetic reconnection occurs, is demonstrated during a steady state of two-dimensional collisionless driven reconnection by means of full-particle simulations. The Hall-term effect is suppressed due to the gyroviscous cancellation at scales between the ion-skin depth and ion-meandering-orbit scale, and thus ions are tied to the magnetic field. The ion frozen-in constraint is strongly broken by nongyrotropic pressure tensor effects due to ion-meandering motion, and thus the ion-dissipation region is formed at scales below the ion-meandering-orbit scale. A similar process is observed in the formation of an electron-dissipation region. These two dissipation regions are clearly observed in an out-of-plane current density profile.     

日冕反常加热之谜新解

日冕加热之谜是当代天文学、天体物理学中的八大难题之一。自日冕高温发现七十多年以来,人们建立了许多模型试图解决这一难题,但到目前为止,现有的模型几乎都无法给出一个完整的解答。近年来,人们从观测上取得了一系列新的发现,如从光球到日冕的超精细磁通道中的快速上升热流、二型针状体、极紫外龙卷风等。这些发现给我们一个新的启示,即日冕的加热能量很可能是直接通过热物质上升并在日冕区域沉积而实现的。但是,这些上升热流又是如何形成的呢？鉴于太阳大气中普遍存在具有磁场梯度的磁通量管,作者最近提出了磁场梯度抽运机制(magnetic gradient pumping mechanism,MGP),每一磁通量管就像一个抽水机一般,将底层热分布的等离子体中的高能端粒子抽运到高层大气中沉积,并最终形成了高温的日冕大气。这一机制为我们探索日冕加热之谜提供了一个新的思路。     

Flux pileup in collisionless magnetic reconnection: bursty interaction of large flux ropes

Using fully kinetic simulations of the island coalescence problem for a range of system sizes greatly exceeding kinetic scales, the phenomenon of flux pileup in the collisionless regime is demonstrated. While small islands on the scale of λ ≤ 5 ion inertial length (d(i)) coalesce rapidly and do not support significant flux pileup, coalescence of larger islands is characterized by large flux pileup and a weaker time averaged reconnection rate that scales as √(d(i)/λ) while the peak rate remains nearly independent of island size. For the largest islands (λ = 100d(i)), reconnection is bursty and nearly shuts off after the first bounce, reconnecting ~20% of the available flux.     

Observation of collisionless plasma heating by strong shock waves

The heating of a plasma by collisionless shock waves is investigated by measuring the variation of magnetic field (with magnetic probes), density and electron temperature (from Thomson scattering of laser light) in the shock waves. The compression waves are produced in a tube of 14 cm diameter by the fast rising magnetic field (12 kG in 0.5Μsec) of a theta pinch. For shocks with Mach numbers between 2 and 3 propagating into a hydrogen or deuterium plasma with a localΒ of about 1 (Β=ratio of particle pressure to magnetic pressure) the measured jump in density and magnetic field across the front is 2 to 4, and the electron temperature increases in the front from 3 to 50 eV with a further rise to between 100 and 250 eV in the piston region. Only about 20% of the measured electron heating can be explained by adiabatic heating and resistive heating based on binary collisions, indicating a high turbulent plasma resistance. Both the observed electron heating and the width of the shock front, which is about 0.6 ·c/Ω _p, can be accounted for using an effective collision frequency close to the ion plasma frequencyΩ _p. The ion heating in the almost stationary shock fronts can be inferred indirectly from the steady state conservation relations. For shock waves with Mach numbersM<M _crit it seems to be consistent with an adiabatic heating process, whereas forM>M _crit the calculated ion temperatures exceed those one would except for a merely adiabatic heating.     

Electron self-reinforcing process of magnetic reconnection

The growth of collisionless magnetic reconnection is discovered to be a nonlinear electron self-reinforcing process. Accelerated by the reconnection electric field, the small portion of energetic electrons in the vicinity of the X point are found to be the cause of the fast reconnection rate. This new mechanism explains that recent simulation results of different reconnection evolutions (i.e., steady state, quasisteady state, or nonsteady state) are essentially determined by the availability of feeding plasma inflows. Simulations are carried out with open boundary conditions.     

Local measurement of nonclassical ion heating during magnetic reconnection

Local ion temperature and flows are measured directly in the well-characterized reconnection layer of a laboratory plasma. The measurements indicate strongly that ions are heated due to reconnection and that more than half of the reconnected field energy is converted to ion thermal energy. Neither classical viscous damping of the observed sub-Alfvenic ion flows nor classical energy exchange with electrons is sufficient to account for the ion heating, suggesting the importance of nonclassical dissipation mechanisms in the reconnection layer.     

Turbulent heating of electrons and ions in a collisionless shock wave

Turbulent heating of a nonisothermal plasma by a collisionless shock wave is analysed in the situation when a small-scale high-frequency instability occurs at the wave front. Effective time of electron and ion heating is estimated.     

太阳日冕物质抛射的磁流体力学性质

太阳是离地球最近的一颗恒星,太阳日冕物质抛射是太阳大气中最剧烈的一种活动现象.当日冕物质抛射爆发时,大量的等离子体物质从接近太阳日面的低日冕被抛出,瞬时释放出巨大的能量.当一部分这些物质和能量传播到地球附近时,可以造成短波通讯中断、卫星工作失常等破坏性现象.文章作者认为,是缠绕的太阳磁场提供了足够的能量,使这些日冕物质可以克服恒星的重力以及周边磁场的束缚抛射出来;而磁螺度在日冕中的不断积累,不仅为日冕物质抛射提供了能量基础,而且使爆发在一定程度上成为一种日冕演化的必然.     

Spatially resolved measurements of ion heating during impulsive reconnection in the Madison Symmetric Torus

The impurity ion temperature evolution has been measured during three types of impulsive reconnection events in the Madison Symmetric Torus reversed field pinch. During an edge reconnection event, the drop in stored magnetic energy is small and ion heating is observed to be limited to the outer half of the plasma. Conversely, during a global reconnection event the drop in stored magnetic energy is large, and significant heating is observed at all radii. For both kinds of events, the drop in magnetic energy is sufficient to explain the increase in ion thermal energy. However, not all types of reconnection lead to ion heating. During a core reconnection event, both the stored magnetic energy and impurity ion temperature remain constant. The results suggest that a drop in magnetic energy is required for ions to be heated during reconnection, and that when this occurs heating is localized near the reconnection layer.     

Plasma heating by discontinuous MHD flows in the vicinity of a magnetic reconnection region

An expression that explicitly describes variations in the internal energy of the plasma that flows through a discontinuity is derived based on the complete system of boundary conditions for the MHD equations on the discontinuity surface. The dependence of the plasma heating on the magnetic field density and configuration in the vicinity of the discontinuity surface (i.e., on the MHD flow type) is studied. The conditions of plasma heating at discontinuities in a self-consistent analytical model of magnetic reconnection are discussed.     

Variability of coronal structures and ion components in the solar wind

The variations of solar wind ion fluxes of protons and-particles are studied in a wide timescale: from parts of a second to several months. A persistence time of about 60 hours was obtained for the large-scale variations of-particles. Power density spectra of velocity, density and magnetic field were studied in the frequency range from 10^–5 to 10^–3 Hz. Middle-scale fluctuations of both protons and-particles are close to each other and the spectrum for-particles has a somewhat greater slope than that for protons. Estimates of the variations of the flux power density are given in the frequency range from 10^–3 to 3 Hz.Presented at the VII STP-Symposium in the Hague (Netherlands), 1990.