Microscopic filamentation due to electrothermal instability and plasma heating in time-dependent solar transition layer

Abstract

We have investigated nonlinear equilibrium states of a microscopic current filamentation (electrothermal instability) in solar atmosphere. The microscopic filamentation instability will develop for transition zone ion temperature plasmas, provided T e/Ti > 1, where T e and T i are the electron and ion temperatures, respectively. Since the temperature radio for a steady-state solar atmosphere is approximately unity, the electrothermal instability will develop only in a time-dependent solar atmosphere. Indeed, such a condition is provided by time-dependent currents, which seem to exist in many magnetic loops as recent analysis by Porter et al. (1987) indicates. When the onset condition for the electrothermal instability is satisfied, the instability drives a current filamentation to a nonlinear equilibrium state with a spatially periodic electron temperature variation with the wavelength comparable to several ion-Larmor radii. The amplitude of the periodic temperature variation may be so large that the transition layer temperature and coronal temperature plasmas may exist within several Larmor radii — coexistence of the transition zone and corona within the same macro-volume.