Catastrophe versus instability for the eruption of a toroadal solar magnetic flux
- The onset of a solar eruption is formulated here as either a magnetic catastrophe or as an instability. Both start with the same equation of force balance governing the underlying equilibria. Using a toroidal flux rope in an external bipolar or quadrupolar field as a model for the current-carrying flux, we demonstrate the occurrence of a fold catastrophe by loss of equilibrium for several representative evolutionary sequences in the stable domain of parameter space. We verify that this catastrophe and the torus instability occur at the same point; they are thus equivalent descriptions for the onset condition of solar eruptions.
| Author details: | Bernhard KliemORCiDGND, J. Lin, T. G. Forbes, E. R. Priest, T. Toeroek |
|---|---|
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/789/1/46 |
| ISSN: | 0004-637X |
| ISSN: | 1538-4357 |
| Title of parent work (English): | The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics |
| Publisher: | IOP Publ. Ltd. |
| Place of publishing: | Bristol |
| Publication type: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Year of first publication: | 2014 |
| Publication year: | 2014 |
| Release date: | 2017/03/27 |
| Tag: | Sun: corona; Sun: coronal mass ejections (CMEs); Sun: filaments, prominences; Sun: flares; Sun: magnetic fields; magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) |
| Volume: | 789 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Number of pages: | 13 |
| Funding institution: | Chinese Academy of Sciences [2012T1J0017]; DFG; STFC; NSF; 973 Program [2013CB815103, 2011CB811403]; NSFC [11273055, 11333007]; CAS |
| Organizational units: | Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Institut für Physik und Astronomie |
| Peer review: | Referiert |
