Evidence for Coexistence of SOC, Intermittent Turbulence and Low-Dimensional Chaos Processes in Solar Flare Dynamics

Abstract

In this study, we present evidence for the co‐existence of a SOC‐like mechanism, of intermittent turbulence and a hidden low dimensional chaotic process underlying the solar activity. In particular, the original signal reveals a high dimensional stochastic character and a critical state according to a SOC process, since there in no clear discrimination between the original signal and its surrogate data concerning geometrical and dynamical characteristics of the solar time series. Furthermore, using the flat coefficient F we found evidence for intermittent turbulence behaviour. This result was based on the non‐Gaussian character and the presence of long‐range correlated plasma vorticity. This is in agreement with the low dimensional chaotic self‐organization that was revealed after the application of a high pass filter to the original solar flares signal and provides further evidence for self organization in solar activity dynamics. Finally, the above results indicate the existence of a phase transition‐like process in the solar corona dynamics, from high dimensional stochastic states to strong intermittent turbulence and low dimensional chaotic states, according to a general theory of critical dynamics applied to the driven and distributed solar corona system.