On the process of resistive heating instability and the formation of coronal loop structures

Abstract

view Abstract Citations (8) References (47) Co-Reads Similar Papers Volume Content Graphics Metrics Export Citation NASA/ADS On the Process of Resistive Heating Instability and the Formation of Coronal Loop Structures Lou, Yu-Qing Abstract A cylindrical electric current sheath embedded in a coaxial magnetic flux rope is in an inductive, thermal, and mechanical equilibrium. The transport processes involved are assumed to be anomalous. Such a system is subject to a class of macroscopic resistive heating instabilities in addition to the known MHD mechanical, thermal, and tearing instabilities. The onset of the resistive heating instability within the sheath gives rise to various large-scale helical patterns of thermal perturbation winding along the background magnetic flux rope. These helical thermal structures roughly map out the general direction of the magnetic field lines within the sheath. In an idealized scenario, a solar coronal magnetic flux rope may consist of many coaxial current sheaths of different radii. The coupled development of the MHD resistive heating, mechanical, thermal, and tearing instabilities within such an ensemble of current sheaths may result in the appearance of compact X-ray loop patterns on virtually all spatial scales with various collective morphologies. We propose the resistive heating instability as an important elemental mechanism leading to the formation of compact X-ray loops in solar active regions. Publication: The Astrophysical Journal Pub Date: August 1992 DOI: 10.1086/171688 Bibcode: 1992ApJ...395..682L Keywords: Gamma Ray Astronomy; Magnetohydrodynamic Stability; Plasma Sheaths; Solar Corona; Solar X-Rays; Electric Current; Perturbation Theory; Solar Activity; Solar Magnetic Field; Solar Physics; MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS: MHD; SUN: CORONA; SUN: X-RAYS; GAMMA RAYS full text sources ADS | Related Materials (1) Erratum: 1993ApJ...404..418L