Magnetic Field Structure Research Articles

MODELING OF THE EXTERNAL MAGNETIC FIELD OF ELECTRIC MACHINES

Powerful electric machines – such as electric generators, electric motors generate a magnetic field of great tension. These fields negatively effect on personnel and can to violate the stability of electronic equipment. To determine safe areas for workers, laying communication cables and placing sensitive electronic equipment, it is advisable to model the propagation of magnetic fields of electrical machines. This will make it possible to rationalize the placing of electrical equipment at design stages. The most common high-power electrical machines are four-pole electrical machines with a dipole-quadrupole structure of the external magnetic field. The purpose of the research is a development of models of the propagation of the external magnetic field generated by alternating current electric machines. Results of the research: it is substantiated that to simulate the propagation of the magnetic field of electric machines, it is advisable to use the Gauss equation for the magnetic scalar potential. This will make it possible to take into account the required number of spatial harmonics of the magnetic field to ensure an acceptable calculation error. An electric machine is considered in a spherical approximation. Calculations were carried out in spherical coordinates. The distances were determined in relative radii of the electric machine - the ratio of the radius of the machine to the definition of field strength. The calculations were made for two planes of spherical coordinates and a three-dimensional image was obtained. As a result of the simulation, it is possible to determine the magnetic field strength of a four-pole electric machine at selected distances and directions around the electric machine with the required accuracy. It has been established that there are points of zero external magnetic field strength around electrical machines. Verification of the simulation results was carried out using the method of full-scale measurements of the magnetic field strength around a real four-pole machine. The measurement results showed acceptable agreement with the calculated data. Conclusions: the chosen approach and the results of modeling the propagation of the external magnetic field of electrical machines can be used to design the placement of electrical equipment, taking into account the requirements for electromagnetic safety and electromagnetic compatibility of technical equipment.

Influence of the geometrical shape of a prominence and the structure of the coronal magnetic field on the probability of eruption, flare and coronal mass ejection development

The equilibrium conditions of the magnetic flux rope containing the prominence depend on the properties of the surrounding magnetic field in the corona and the geometry of the flux rope itself. The eruption of a prominence is usually associated with a loss of stability in the external magnetic field upon reaching a height above which the decay index of the field exceeds the critical value for the development of eruptive instability. For flux ropes with an axis in the form of a straight line or a circle, the critical value of the decay index of the field lies in the range of 1.0—1.5. Based on extrapolation of the magnetic field into the corona from field measurements in the photosphere, it would be possible to predict the probability of eruption of a particular prominence. However, taking into account the fact that the ends of the magnetic flux rope are rooted in the photosphere and remain fixed due to being frozen into the photospheric plasma significantly affects the critical value of the index and complicates the forecast problem. If the magnetic flux rope retains the shape a segment of a torus in the process of evolution, then the critical value of the decay index for its apex depends on what part of the torus it constitutes, being minimal for approximately half of the torus and having a value significantly less than unity. How the eruption of the flux rope will develop after the loss of equilibrium also depends on what part of the complete torus it constitutes at the moment of the onset of the eruption. Shorter flux ropes accelerate very vigorously, but only for a short time, generating stronger electric induction fields that initiate flare processes. However, the final speed that a short flux rope can achieve during acceleration is less than that of longer flux ropes that accelerate less intensely but for a longer time. The induction effects of the latter are less pronounced, so that they are capable of producing only weak flare-like manifestations. Thus, the eruption of a short prominence, which has gained a relatively low speed, can be stopped at a certain height in the corona without generating a coronal mass ejection. But such a “failed eruption” contributes to the development of flare phenomena. On the contrary, eruptions of longer prominences more often lead to the formation of coronal mass ejections and weak flare manifestations.

A Multibranch Deep Neural Network for the Superresolution of Solar Magnetograms

The existing superresolution (SR) models for solar magnetograms are mostly borrowed from the SR models for natural images. They are less effective for processing solar magnetograms with a very large dynamic range and very rich image features. In this paper, a multibranch superresolution (MBSR) model is specially designed for solar magnetograms. First, we split a low-resolution magnetogram into a group of overlapping image patches, and classify them into three categories according to magnetic flux intensity, namely simple, medium, and complex. Then, image patches of each category are fed into the corresponding branch of the MBSR network, the lightweight branch for simple image patches and the heavyweight one for complex image patches. The advantage of such a strategy is twofold. On the one hand, active regions are allocated more computational resources to train a heavyweight branch more fully, while quiet regions are allocated fewer computational resources to train a lightweight branch for saving computational resources. On the other hand, a lightweight network with a simple nonlinear function is preferable to simple regions, while a heavyweight one may be underfitting. Additionally, to verify the effectiveness of the proposed model, a magnetic field structure similarity metric is proposed to measure the artifacts of the generated high-resolution (HR) magnetograms. Experimental results show that the proposed MBSR model generates HR magnetograms highly consistent with the HMI ones, and achieves the best performance over five objective metrics, including peak signal-to-noise ratio and structure similarity, etc.

Multi-scale magnetic field investigation of the M-dwarf eclipsing binary CU Cancri

We aim to characterise the magnetic field of the eclipsing binary CU Cancri, which consists of two M-dwarf components. The determination of the magnetic field parameters of this target enables comparisons with both observations of similar stars and theoretical predictions of the magnetic field strength in CU Cnc. The target therefore provides an excellent opportunity to test our understanding of the generation of magnetic fields in low-mass stars and its impact on stellar structure. We used spectropolarimetric observations obtained with ESPaDOnS at the CFHT to investigate the magnetic properties of CU Cnc. To improve the signal, we used least-squares deconvolution (LSD) to create average line profiles. From these LSD profiles, we extracted information about the radial velocities of the components, significantly expanding the number of radial velocity measurements available and allowing for a determination of the orbital parameters. Stokes $V$ LSD profiles were used with Zeeman Doppler imaging to obtain the large-scale magnetic field structures of the two components. We also used detailed polarised radiative transfer modelling to investigate the small-scale fields, by Zeeman-splitting magnetically sensitive Ti I lines in non-polarised spectra. We obtain both the small- and large-scale magnetic field properties of the two components. The large-scale fields are dominantly poloidal, and both components have an average strength of approximately 100\,G. This analysis of the large-scale fields likely suffers from some amount of hemisphere degeneracy due to the high inclination of the target, which would cause the large-scale field strength of the components to be underestimated. Both components also show unusual magnetic field configurations compared to stars with similar parameters: the primary is weakly axisymmetric (sim \,10\,<!PCT!>), and the secondary has a strong toroidal contribution (sim \,20\,<!PCT!>). The small-scale fields are significantly stronger, 3.1 and 3.6\,kG for the primary and secondary, respectively. This measurement is in excellent agreement with surface field strength predictions for CU Cnc from magneto-convective stellar evolution models. These results indicate that magnetic fields could play a significant role in the radius inflation due to convective inhibition.

Density distributions, magnetic field structures, and fragmentation in high-mass star formation

Context. The fragmentation of high-mass star-forming regions depends on a variety of physical parameters, including density, the magnetic field, and turbulent gas properties. Aims. We evaluate the importance of the density and magnetic field structures in relation to the fragmentation properties during high-mass star formation. Methods. Observing the large parsec-scale Stokes I millimeter dust continuum emission with the IRAM 30 m telescope and the intermediate-scale (<0.1 pc) polarized submillimeter dust emission with the Submillimeter Array toward a sample of 20 high-mass star-forming regions allows us to quantify the dependence of the fragmentation behavior of these regions on the density and magnetic field structures. Results. Based on the IRAM 30 m data, we infer density distributions n ∝ r−p of the regions with typical power-law slopes p around ~1.5. There is no obvious correlation between the power-law slopes of the density structures on larger clump scales (~1 pc) and the number of fragments on smaller core scales (<0.1 pc). Comparing the large-scale single-dish density profiles to those derived earlier from interferometric observations at smaller spatial scales, we find that the smaller-scale power-law slopes are steeper, typically around ~2.0. The flattening toward larger scales is consistent with the star-forming regions being embedded in larger cloud structures that do not decrease in density away from a particular core. The magnetic fields of several regions appear to be aligned with filamentary structures that lead toward the densest central cores. Furthermore, we find different polarization structures; some regions exhibit central polarization holes, whereas other regions show polarized emission also toward the central peak positions. Nevertheless, the polarized intensities are inversely related to the Stokes I intensities, following roughly a power-law slope of ∝ SI−0.62. We estimate magnetic field strengths between ~0.2 and ~4.5 mG, and we find no clear correlation between magnetic field strength and the fragmentation level of the regions. A comparison of the turbulent to magnetic energies shows that they are of roughly equal importance in this sample. The mass-to-flux ratios range between ~2 and ~7, consistent with collapsing star-forming regions. Conclusions. Finding no clear correlations between the present-day large-scale density structure, the magnetic field strength, and the smaller-scale fragmentation properties of the regions, indicates that the fragmentation of high-mass star-forming regions may not be affected strongly by the initial density profiles and magnetic field properties. However, considering the limited evolutionary range and spatial scales of the presented CORE analysis, future research directions should include density structure analysis of younger regions that better resemble the initial conditions, as well as connecting the observed intermediate-scale magnetic field structure with the larger-scale magnetic fields of the parental molecular clouds.

Filamentary Network and Magnetic Field Structures Revealed with BISTRO in the High-mass Star-forming Region NGC 2264: Global Properties and Local Magnetogravitational Configurations

We report 850 μm continuum polarization observations toward the filamentary high-mass star-forming region NGC 2264, taken as part of the B-fields In STar forming Regions Observations large program on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. These data reveal a well-structured nonuniform magnetic field in the NGC 2264C and 2264D regions with a prevailing orientation around 30° from north to east. Field strength estimates and a virial analysis of the major clumps indicate that NGC 2264C is globally dominated by gravity, while in 2264D, magnetic, gravitational, and kinetic energies are roughly balanced. We present an analysis scheme that utilizes the locally resolved magnetic field structures, together with the locally measured gravitational vector field and the extracted filamentary network. From this, we infer statistical trends showing that this network consists of two main groups of filaments oriented approximately perpendicular to one another. Additionally, gravity shows one dominating converging direction that is roughly perpendicular to one of the filament orientations, which is suggestive of mass accretion along this direction. Beyond these statistical trends, we identify two types of filaments. The type I filament is perpendicular to the magnetic field with local gravity transitioning from parallel to perpendicular to the magnetic field from the outside to the filament ridge. The type II filament is parallel to the magnetic field and local gravity. We interpret these two types of filaments as originating from the competition between radial collapsing, driven by filament self-gravity, and longitudinal collapsing, driven by the region's global gravity.

Modeling energetic proton transport in a corotating interaction region

Aims. An energetic particle event related to a corotating interaction region (CIR) structure was observed by the Solar-Terrestrial Relations Observatory-A (STEREO-A) from 21 to 24 August 2016. Based on an analysis of measurement data, we suggest that instead of being accelerated by distant shocks, a local mechanism similar to diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) acting in the compression region could explain the flux enhancements of 1.8–10.0 MeV nucleon−1 protons. We created simulations to verify our hypothesis. Methods. We developed a coupled model composed of a data-driven analytical background model providing solar wind configuration and a particle transport model represented by the focused transport equation (FTE). We simulated particle transport in the CIR region of interest in order to obtain the evolution of proton fluxes and derive the spectra. Results. We find that the simulation is well correlated with the observation. The mechanism of particle scattering back and forth between the trap-like structure of interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) in the compression region is the major factor responsible for the flux enhancements in this energetic particle event, and perpendicular diffusion identified by a ratio of κ⊥/κ|| ∼ 10−2 plays an important role in the temporal evolution of proton fluxes.

Influence of the Geometrical Shape of a Prominence and Structure of the Coronal Magnetic Field on the Probability of Eruption, Flare Development, and Coronal Mass Ejection

Influence of the Geometrical Shape of a Prominence and Structure of the Coronal Magnetic Field on the Probability of Eruption, Flare Development, and Coronal Mass Ejection

Phenomenology and periodicity of radio emission from the stellar system AU Microscopii

Stellar radio emission can measure a star’s magnetic field strength and structure, plasma density, and dynamics, and the stellar wind pressure impinging on exoplanet atmospheres. However, properly interpreting the radio data often requires temporal baselines that cover the rotation of the stars, orbits of their planets, and any longer-term stellar activity cycles. Here we present our monitoring campaign on the young, active M dwarf AU Microscopii with the Australia Telescope Compact Array between 1.1 and 3.1 GHz. With over 250 h of observations, these data represent the longest radio monitoring campaign on a single main-sequence star to date. We find that AU Mic produces a wide variety of radio emission, for which we introduce a phenomenological classification scheme predicated on the polarisation fraction and time-frequency structure of the emission. Such a classification scheme is applicable to radio emission from other radio-bright stars. The six types of radio emission detected on AU Mic can be broadly categorised into five distinct types of bursts, and broadband quiescent emission. We find that the radio bursts are highly circularly polarised and periodic with the rotation period of the star, implying that the emission is beamed. It is therefore most likely produced by the electron cyclotron maser instability. We present a model to show that the observed pattern of emission can be explained by emission from auroral rings on the magnetic poles. The total intensity of the broadband emission is stochastic, but we show that its circular polarisation fraction is also periodic with the rotation of the star. Such a periodicity in the polarised fraction of emission has not been observed on an M dwarf before. We present a qualitative model to describe the periodicity in the polarisation fraction of the broadband emission, using low-harmonic gyromagnetic emission. Using a simple qualitative model, we infer a magnetic obliquity of at least 20° from the observed variation in polarisation fraction. Finally, we show that the radio emission might be evolving on long timescales, hinting at a potential stellar magnetic activity cycle.

Where Did the Amaterasu Particle Come From?

The Telescope Array Collaboration recently reported the detection of a cosmic-ray particle, “Amaterasu,” with an extremely high energy of 2.4 × 1020 eV. Here we investigate its probable charge and the locus of its production. Interpreted as a primary iron nucleus or slightly stripped fragment, the event fits well within the existing paradigm for UHECR composition and spectrum. Using the most up-to-date modeling of the Galactic magnetic field strength and structure, and taking into account uncertainties, we identify the likely volume from which it originated. We estimate a localization uncertainty on the source direction of 6.6% of 4π or 2726 deg2. The uncertainty of magnetic deflections and the experimental energy uncertainties contribute about equally to the localization uncertainty. The maximum source distance is 8–50 Mpc, with the range reflecting the uncertainty on the energy assignment. We provide sky maps showing the localization region of the event and superimpose the location of galaxies of different types. There are no candidate sources among powerful radio galaxies. An origin in active galactic nuclei or star-forming galaxies is unlikely but cannot be completely ruled out without a more precise energy determination. The most straightforward option is that Amaterasu was created in a transient event in an otherwise undistinguished galaxy.

Simulating Compressive Stream Interaction Regions during Parker Solar Probe’s First Perihelion Using Stream-aligned Magnetohydrodynamics

We used the stream-aligned magnetohydrodynamics (SA-MHD) model to simulate Carrington rotation 2210, which contains Parker Solar Probe’s (PSP) first perihelion at 36.5 R ⊙ on 2018 November 6, to provide context to the in situ PSP observations by FIELDS and SWEAP. The SA-MHD model aligns the magnetic field with the velocity vector at each point, thereby allowing for clear connectivity between the spacecraft and the source regions on the Sun, without unphysical magnetic field structures. During this Carrington rotation, two stream interaction regions (SIRs) form, due to the deep solar minimum. We include the energy partitioning of the parallel and perpendicular ions and the isotropic electrons to investigate the temperature anisotropy through the compression regions to better understand the wave energy amplification and proton thermal energy partitioning in a global context. Overall, we found good agreement in all in situ plasma parameters between the SA-MHD results and the observations at PSP, STEREO-A, and Earth, including at PSP’s perihelion and through the compression region of the SIRs. In the typical solar wind, the parallel proton temperature is preferentially heated, except in the SIR, where there is an enhancement in the perpendicular proton temperature. This is further showcased in the ion cyclotron relaxation time, which shows a distinct decrease through the SIR compression regions. This work demonstrates the success of the Alfvén wave turbulence theory for predicting interplanetary magnetic turbulence levels, while self-consistently reproducing solar wind speeds, densities, and overall temperatures, including at small heliocentric distances and through SIR compression regions.

First Insights into the Applicability and Importance of Different 3D Magnetic Field Extrapolation Approaches for Studying the Preeruptive Conditions of Solar Active Regions

The three-dimensional (3D) coronal magnetic field has not yet been directly observed. However, for a better understanding and prediction of magnetically driven solar eruptions, 3D models of solar active regions are required. This work aims to provide insight into the significance of different extrapolation models for analyzing the preeruptive conditions of active regions with morphological parameters in 3D. Here, we employed potential field (PF), linear force-free field (LFFF), and nonlinear force-free field (NLFFF) models and a neural network-based method integrating observational data and NLFFF physics (NF2). The 3D coronal magnetic field structure of a “flaring” (AR11166) and “flare-quiet” (AR12645) active region, in terms of their flare productivity, is constructed via the four extrapolation methods. To analyze the evolution of the field, six prediction parameters were employed throughout, from the photosphere up to the base of the lower corona. First, we find that the evolution of the adopted morphological parameters exhibits similarity across the investigated time period when considering the four types of extrapolations. Second, all the parameters exhibited preeruptive conditions not only at the photosphere but also at higher altitudes in the case of active region (AR) 11166, while three out of the six proxies also exhibited preeruptive conditions in the case of AR12645. We conclude that: (i) the combined application of several different precursor parameters is important in the lower solar atmosphere to improve eruption predictions, and (ii) to gain a quick yet reliable insight into the preflare evolution of active regions in 3D, the PF and LFFF are acceptable; however, the NF2 method is likely the more suitable option.

Magnetic Fields in the Central Molecular Zone Influenced by Feedback and Weakly Correlated with Star Formation

Magnetic fields of molecular clouds in the central molecular zone (CMZ) have been relatively under-observed at sub-parsec resolution. Here, we report JCMT/POL2 observations of polarized dust emission in the CMZ, which reveal magnetic field structures in dense gas at ∼0.5 pc resolution. The 11 molecular clouds in our sample include two in the western part of the CMZ (Sgr C and a farside cloud candidate), four around the Galactic longitude 0 (the 50 km s−1 cloud, CO 0.02−0.02, the Stone, and the Sticks and Straw among the Three Little Pigs), and five along the Dust Ridge (G0.253+0.016, clouds b, c, d, and e/f), for each of which we estimate the magnetic field strength using the angular dispersion function method. The morphologies of magnetic fields in the clouds suggest potential imprints of feedback from expanding H ii regions and young massive star clusters. A moderate correlation between the total viral parameter versus the star formation rate (SFR) and the dense gas fraction of the clouds is found. A weak correlation between the mass-to-flux ratio and the SFR, and a weak anticorrelation between the magnetic field and the dense gas fraction are also found. Comparisons between magnetic fields and other dynamic components in clouds suggest a more dominant role of self-gravity and turbulence in determining the dynamical states of the clouds and affecting star formation at the studied scales.

The internal Faraday screen of Sagittarius A*

We report on 85−101 GHz light curves of the Galactic Center supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), observed in April 2017 with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). This study of high-cadence full-Stokes data provides new measurements of the fractional linear polarization at a 1−2% level resolved in 4 s time segments, and stringent upper limits on the fractional circular polarization at 0.3%. We compare these findings to ALMA light curves of Sgr A* at 212−230 GHz observed three days later, characterizing a steep depolarization of the source at frequencies below about 150 GHz. We obtain time-dependent rotation measure (RM) values, with the mean RM at 85−101 GHz being a factor of two lower than that at 212−230 GHz. Together with the rapid temporal variability of the RM and its different statistical characteristics in both frequency bands, these results indicate that the Faraday screen in Sgr A* is largely internal, with about half of the Faraday rotation taking place inside the inner 10 gravitational radii, contrary to the common external Faraday screen assumption. We then demonstrate how this observation can be reconciled with theoretical models of radiatively inefficient accretion flows for a reasonable set of physical parameters. Comparisons with numerical general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations suggest that the innermost part of the accretion flow in Sgr A* is much less variable than these models predict; in particular, the observed magnetic field structure appears to be coherent and persistent.

Magnetic field amplification in cosmological zoom simulations from dwarf galaxies to galaxy groups

ABSTRACT Magnetic fields are ubiquitous in the Universe. Recently, cosmological simulations of galaxies have successfully begun to incorporate magnetic fields and their evolution in galaxies and their haloes. However, so far they have mostly focused on Milky Way-like galaxies. Here, we analyse a sample of high-resolution cosmological zoom simulations of disc galaxies in haloes with mass ${M}_\rm {200c}$ from $10^{10}$ to $10^{13}\, \rm {M}_\odot$, simulated with the Auriga galaxy formation model. We show that with sufficient numerical resolution the magnetic field amplification and saturation is converged. The magnetic field strength reaches equipartition with turbulent energy density for galaxies in haloes with ${M}_\rm {200c}\gtrsim 10^{11.5}\, \mathrm{M_\odot }$. For galaxies in less massive haloes, the magnetic field strength saturates at a fraction of equipartition that decreases with decreasing halo mass. For our lowest mass haloes, the magnetic field saturates significantly below 10 per cent of equipartition. We quantify the resolution we need to obtain converged magnetic field strengths and discuss our resolution requirements also in the context of the IllustrisTNG cosmological box simulations. We show that, at z = 0, rotation-dominated galaxies in our sample exhibit for the most part an ordered large-scale magnetic field, with fewer field reversals in more massive galaxies. Finally, we compare the magnetic fields in our cosmological galaxies at z = 0 with simulations of isolated galaxies in a collapsing halo set-up. Our results pave the way for detailed studies of cosmic rays and other physical processes in similar cosmological galaxy simulations that crucially depend on the strength and structure of magnetic fields.

MeerKAT 1.3 GHz Observations of Supernova Remnants

We present full Stokes MeerKAT L-band (856–1712 MHz) observations of 36 high-latitude supernova remnants (SNRs). Sensitive, high-dynamic-range images show a wealth of structure. G15.1−1.6 appears to be a H ii region rather than an SNR. G30.7−2.0 consists of three background extragalactic sources which appear to form an arc when imaged with much lower resolution. At least half of the remnants in the sample contain “blowouts” or “ears,” showing these to be a common feature. Analysis of the polarimetric data reveals details of the magnetic field structure in the emitting regions of the remnants as well as magnetized thermal plasma in front of polarized emission. The chance alignment of G327.6+14.6 with a background active galactic nucleus with very extended polarized jets allows testing for the presence of Faraday effects in the interior of the remnant. Scant evidence of Faraday rotating material is found in the interior of this remnant.

Simulating gamma-ray production from cosmic rays interacting with the solar atmosphere in the presence of coronal magnetic fields* *Supported in China by the NSFC (12261160362, 12022502). KCYN is supported by grants provided by the NSFC (12322517, N_CUHK456/22) and RGC (24302721, 14305822, 14308023)

Cosmic rays can interact with the solar atmosphere and produce a slew of secondary messengers, making the Sun a bright gamma-ray source in the sky. Detailed observations with Fermi-LAT have shown that these interactions must be strongly affected by solar magnetic fields in order to produce a wide range of observational features, such as a high flux and hard spectrum. However, the detailed mechanisms behind these features are still a mystery. In this study, we tackle this problem by performing particle-interaction simulations in the solar atmosphere in the presence of coronal magnetic fields using the potential field source surface (PFSS) model. We find that low-energy (~ GeV) gamma-ray production is significantly enhanced by the coronal magnetic fields, but the enhancement decreases rapidly with energy. The enhancement directly correlates with the production of gamma rays with large deviation angles relative to the input cosmic-ray direction. We conclude that coronal magnetic fields are essential for correctly modeling solar disk gamma rays below 10 GeV, but above that, the effect of coronal magnetic fields diminishes. Other magnetic field structures are needed to explain the high-energy disk emission.

Data-driven scale identification in oscillatory dynamos

ABSTRACT Parker’s mean-field model includes two processes generating large-scale oscillatory dynamo waves: stretching of magnetic field lines by small-scale helical flows and by differential rotation. In this work, we investigate the capacity of data-driven modal analysis, dynamic mode decomposition (DMD), to identify coherent magnetic field structures of this model. In its canonical form, the only existing field scale corresponds to the dynamo instability. To take into account multiscale nature of the dynamo, the model was augmented with coherent in time flow field, forcing small-scale magnetic field with a faster temporal evolution. Two clusters of DMD modes were obtained: the ‘slow’ cluster, located near the dynamo wave frequency and associated with its non-linear self-interaction, and the ‘fast’ cluster, centred around the forcing frequency and resulting from the interaction between the wave and the flow. Compared to other widely used methods of data analysis, such as Fourier transform, DMD provides a natural spatiotemporal basis for the dynamo, related to its non-linear dynamics. We assess how the parameters of the DMD model, rank, and delay, influence its accuracy, and finally discuss the limitations of this approach when applied to randomly forced, more complex dynamo flows.

Electron extraction mechanism of magnet array microwave discharge neutralizer

Microwave discharge neutralizer is an important part of microwave discharge ion thruster system, which plays a vital role in maintaining potential balance between spacecraft and neutralizing ion beam. Its electron extraction property directly affects the operation condition of ion thruster system. In order to break through the power limit of miniature microwave discharge ion thruster, a magnet array microwave discharge ion thruster system is designed and tested. In the experiment on finalizing magnetic field structure of magnet array microwave discharge neutralizer, an interesting phenomenon is found that the <i>I</i>-<i>V</i> curves of electron current, after rotating the magnetic array orientation, are very different. Defining forward direction of magnet array can normally extract electrons, then backward direction of magnet array can hardly extract electrons. Because the diameter of discharge chamber is only 10 mm, it is too small to perform Langmuir probe diagnosis. And thus, an integrative particle-in-cell method is used to simulate the neutralizer operation processes of two different magnetic field structures, and for the sake of accuracy, real vacuum permittivity is used. The simulation results show good consistence with experimental phenomenon. In the initial discharge process, it is found that the magnetic field gradient leads to different plasma distributions; in electron extraction process, it is found that the potential distribution near the orifice determines the electron extraction property of the neutralizer. Through comparing the plasma parameter distributions under different magnetic field structures and operating voltages, an assumption that the ion is an important factor in electron extraction process is proposed. Then, a simulation that ions disappear artificially outside the orifice is conducted, and the simulation results show that electrons cannot be effectively extracted without ions near the orifice. According to the simulation and experiment results, two necessary conditions are summarized for electron extraction of the neutralizer. The first condition is magnetic field structure: the magnetic field gradient should point towards the orifice to guide plasma migration towards the orifice, the second one is potential distribution: there should be enough ions to lift the potential near the orifice for reducing or breaking the potential well. These two conditions can help understand the electron extraction mechanism of microwave discharge neutralizer and provide theoretical reference for optimizing the performance of neutralizer in future.

Tomographic Imaging of the Sagittarius Spiral Arm's Magnetic Field Structure

The Galactic global magnetic field is thought to play a vital role in shaping Galactic structures such as spiral arms and giant molecular clouds. However, our knowledge of magnetic field structures in the Galactic plane at different distances is limited, as measurements used to map the magnetic field are the integrated effect along the line of sight. In this study, we present the first ever tomographic imaging of magnetic field structures in a Galactic spiral arm. Using optical stellar polarimetry over a 17′×10′ field of view, we probe the Sagittarius spiral arm. Combining these data with stellar distances from the Gaia mission, we can isolate the contributions of five individual clouds along the line of sight by analyzing the polarimetry data as a function of distance. The observed clouds include a foreground cloud (d < 200 pc) and four clouds in the Sagittarius arm at 1.23, 1.47, 1.63, and 2.23 kpc. The column densities of these clouds range from 0.5 to 2.8 × 1021 cm−2. The magnetic fields associated with each cloud show smooth spatial distributions within their observed regions on scales smaller than 10 pc and display distinct orientations. The position angles projected on the plane of the sky, measured from the Galactic north to the east, for the clouds in increasing order of distance are 135°, 46°, 58°, 150°, and 40°, with uncertainties of a few degrees. Notably, these position angles deviate significantly from the direction parallel to the Galactic plane.