Abstract
A laboratory plasma experiment has been built to study the eruption of arched magnetic flux ropes (AMFRs) in the presence of a large magnetized plasma. This experiment simulates the eruption of solar AMFRs in two essential steps: i) it produces an AMFR (n=6.0×1012 cm−3, \(T_{\rm e} = 14~\mathrm{eV}\), B≈1 kilo-gauss, L=0.51 m) with a persistent appearance that lasts several Alfvén transit times using a lanthanum hexaboride (LaB6) plasma source, and ii) it generates controlled plasma flows from the footpoints of the AMFR using laser beams. An additional LaB6 plasma source generates a large magnetized plasma in the background. The laser-generated flows trigger the eruption by injecting dense plasma and magnetic flux into the AMFR. The experiment is highly reproducible and runs continuously with a 0.5 Hz repetition rate; hence, several thousand identical loop eruptions are routinely generated and their spatio-temporal evolution is recorded in three-dimensions using computer-controlled movable probes. Measurements demonstrate striking similarities between the erupting laboratory and solar arched magnetic flux ropes.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abbot C.: 1911, The Sun, D. Appleton and Company, New York, 128.
Alfvén, H., Carlqvist, P.: 1967, Solar Phys. 1, 220.
Antiochos, S.K., DeVore, C.R., Klimchuk, J.A.: 1999, Astrophys. J. 510, 485.
Arnold, L., Dreher, J., Grauer, R., Soltwisch, H., Stein, H.: 2008, Phys. Plasmas 15, 042106.
Bostick, W.H.: 1956, Phys. Rev. 104, 1191.
Burnette, A.B., Canfield, R.C., Pevtsov, A.A.: 2004, Astrophys. J. 606, 565.
Chen, J.: 1996, J. Geophys. Res. 101, 27499.
Chen, J., Kunkel, V.: 2010, Astrophys. J. 717, 1105.
Chen, J., Schuck, P.: 2007, Solar Phys. 246, 145.
Cooper, C.M., Gekelman, W., Pribyl, P., Lucky, Z.: 2010, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 81, 083503.
Cremades, H., Bothmer, V.: 2004, Astron. Astrophys. 422, 307.
Dennis, B.R., Schwartz, R.A.: 1989, Solar Phys. 121, 75.
Forbes, T.G., Isenberg, P.A.: 1991, Astrophys. J. 373, 294.
Gekelman, W., Maggs, J., Pfister, H.: 1992, IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 20, 614.
Gibson, S.E., Low, B.C.: 2000, J. Geophys. Res. 105, 18187.
Habbal, S.R., Holzer, T.E., Leer, E.: 1979, Solar Phys. 64, 287.
Hansen J.F.: 2001, “Laboratory Simulations of Solar Prominences”. Ph.D. thesis, California Institute of Technology.
Hansen, J.F., Tripathi, S.K.P., Bellan, P.M.: 2004, Phys. Plasmas 11, 3177.
Hood, A.W., Priest, E.R.: 1979, Solar Phys. 64, 303.
Hudson, H.: 2011, Space Sci. Rev. 158, 5.
Intrator, T., Sun, X., Lapenta, G., Dorf, L., Furno, I.: 2009, Nat. Phys. 5, 521.
Kosovichev, A., Zharkova, V.: 1999, Solar Phys. 190, 459.
Krieger, A.S., Timothy, A.F., Roelof, E.C.: 1973, Solar Phys. 29, 505.
Kulsrud, R., Ji, H., Fox, W., Yamada, M.: 2005, Phys. Plasmas 12, 082301.
Lang K.: 2001, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Sun, 1st edn., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 106.
Lawrence, E.E., Gekelman, W.: 2009, Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 105002.
Leka, K.D., Canfield, R.C., McClymont, A.N., van Driel-Gesztelyi, L.: 1996, Astrophys. J. 462, 547.
Lin, J., Li, J., Forbes, T.G., Ko, Y.K., Raymond, J.C., Vourlidas, A.: 2007, Astrophys. J. Lett. 658, L123.
Low, B.C.: 2001, J. Geophys. Res. 106, 25141.
Nakariakov, V.M., Ofman, L., Deluca, E.E., Roberts, B., Davila, J.M.: 1999, Science 285, 862.
Ofman, L., Wang, T.J.: 2008, Astron. Astrophys. 482, L9.
Oz, E., Myers, C.E., Yamada, M., Ji, H., Kulsrud, R.M., Xie, J.: 2011, Phys. Plasmas 18, 102107.
Pevtsov, A.A., Canfield, R.C., Metcalf, T.R.: 1995, Astrophys. J. Lett. 440, L109.
Rosner, R., Tucker, W.H., Vaiana, G.S.: 1978, Astrophys. J. 220, 643.
Stenzel, R.L., Gekelman, W., Wild, N.: 1982, J. Geophys. Res. 87, 111.
Timothy, A.F., Krieger, A.S., Vaiana, G.S.: 1975, Solar Phys. 42, 135.
Török, T., Kliem, B., Titov, V.S.: 2004, Astron. Astrophys. 413, L27.
Tripathi, S.K.P., Bellan, P.M., Yun, G.S.: 2007, Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 135002.
Tripathi, S.K.P., Gekelman, W.: 2010, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 075005.
Tripathi S.K.P., Gekelman W.: 2011, In: Choudhary D.P., Strassmeier K.G. (eds.) The Physics of Sun and Star Spots, IAU Symp. 6, 483.
Wheatland, M.S.: 2000, Astrophys. J. 532, 616.
Acknowledgements
The experiment was conducted at the Basic Plasma Science Facility (BaPSF) at the University of California, Los Angeles, which is jointly funded by National Science Foundation and Department of Energy. The authors thank James Chen, Alexander Kosovichev, and Steven Spangler for useful discussions and P. Pribyl, Z. Lucky, and M. Drandell for technical assistance. One of the authors (SKPT) thanks Paul Bellan for his valuable suggestions in deriving the two-fluid MHD induction equation.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tripathi, S.K.P., Gekelman, W. Dynamics of an Erupting Arched Magnetic Flux Rope in a Laboratory Plasma Experiment. Sol Phys 286, 479–492 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-013-0257-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-013-0257-0