The thermal instability in a sheared magnetic field - Filament condensation with anisotropic heat conduction

Abstract

view Abstract Citations (29) References (17) Co-Reads Similar Papers Volume Content Graphics Metrics Export Citation NASA/ADS The thermal instability in a sheared magnetic field - Filament condensation with anisotropic heat conduction van Hoven, G. ; Mok, Y. Abstract The condensation-mode growth rate of the thermal instability in an empirically motivated sheared field is shown to depend upon the existence of perpendicular thermal conduction. This typically very small effect (perpendicular conductivity/parallel conductivity less than about 10 to the -10th for the solar corona) increases the spatial-derivative order of the compressible temperature-perturbation equation, and thereby eliminates the singularities which appear when perpendicular conductivity = 0. The resulting growth rate is less than 1.5 times the controlling constant-density radiation rate, and has a clear maximum at a cross-field length of order 100 times and a width of about 0.1 the magnetic shear scale for solar conditions. The profiles of the observable temperature and density perturbations are independent of the thermal conductivity, and thus agree with those found previously. An analytic solution to the short-wavelength incompressible case is also given. Publication: The Astrophysical Journal Pub Date: July 1984 DOI: 10.1086/162199 Bibcode: 1984ApJ...282..267V Keywords: Condensation; Conductive Heat Transfer; Magnetohydrodynamic Shear Heating; Solar Magnetic Field; Thermal Instability; Anisotropic Media; Density Distribution; Perturbation Theory; Solar Physics; Stellar Models; Temperature Profiles; Solar Physics full text sources ADS |