THE HYDROMAGNETIC INTERIOR OF A SOLAR QUIESCENT PROMINENCE. II. MAGNETIC DISCONTINUITIES AND CROSS-FIELD MASS TRANSPORT

Abstract

This second paper of the series investigates the transverse response of a magnetic field to the independent relaxation of its flux tubes of fluid seeking hydrostatic and energy balance, under the frozen-in condition and suppression of cross-field thermal conduction. The temperature, density, and pressure naturally develop discontinuities across the magnetic flux surfaces separating the tubes, requiring the finite pressure jumps to be compensated by magnetic-pressure jumps in cross-field force balance. The tangentially discontinuous fields are due to discrete currents in these surfaces, δ-function singularities in the current density that are fully admissible under the rigorous frozen-in condition but must dissipate resistively if the electrical conductivity is high but finite. The magnetic field and fluid must thus endlessly evolve by this spontaneous formation and resistive dissipation of discrete currents taking place intermittently in spacetime, even in a low-β environment. This is a multi-dimensional effect in which the field plays a central role suppressed in the one-dimensional (1D) slab model of the first paper. The study begins with an order-of-magnitude demonstration that of the weak resistive and cross-field thermal diffusivities in the corona, the latter is significantly weaker for small β. This case for spontaneous discrete currents, as an important example of the general theory of Parker, is illustrated with an analysis of singularity formation in three families of two-dimensional generalizations of the 1D slab model. The physical picture emerging completes the hypothesis formulated in Paper I that this intermittent process is the origin of the dynamic interiors of a class of quiescent prominences revealed by recent Hinode/SOT and SDO/AIA high-resolution observations.