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Magnetic Flux Ropes on the Sun: Electric Currents and Flare Activity

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Abstract

The main property of magnetic flux ropes in plasma is the shielding of electric currents. The second important property of force-free ropes is the need for external pressure, which prevents the loop from lateral expansion. With allowance for these factors, we calculated a force-free filament structure, in which the magnetic field on the axis significantly exceeds the external one. When a magnetic loop emerges into the rarefied solar atmosphere, the external pressure continuously drops, and at some limiting value, the longitudinal magnetic field of the loop turns to zero at the surface of the change of a sign of electric currents. This leads to a break in the azimuthal current on it and serves as a trigger for the excitation of plasma instability, the appearance of abnormal resistance with subsequent flare energy release and the generation of super-dreicer electric fields in elements of the thin magnetic structure with a diameter of ~100 km. Such fields can accelerate charged particles to hundreds of MeV on a path of several thousand km. The quasi-periodic mode of flare energy release in such a magnetic flux rope is discussed and a mechanism for ejection of accelerated particles from a loop magnetic trap upon entering the heliosphere is proposed.

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This work was supported by ongoing institutional funding. No additional grants to carry out or direct this particular research were obtained.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Main (Pulkovo) Astronomical Observatory, Russian Academy of Sciences, 196140, St. Petersburg, Russia

    A. A. Solov’ev, E. A. Kirichek & O. A. Korolkova

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  1. A. A. Solov’ev
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  2. E. A. Kirichek
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  3. O. A. Korolkova
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Correspondence to A. A. Solov’ev.

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Translated by A. Ivanov

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Solov’ev, A.A., Kirichek, E.A. & Korolkova, O.A. Magnetic Flux Ropes on the Sun: Electric Currents and Flare Activity. Geomagn. Aeron. 63, 1120–1135 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0016793223080200

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