Suppression of the kink instability for magnetic flux ropes in the chromosphere

✍ Scribed by M. A. Raadu

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1972
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 361 KB
• Volume: 22
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0038-0938
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00148707

✦ Synopsis

Energy storage in chromospheric flux ropes is discussed, in the context of solar flares. The structure is represented by a cylindrically symmetric magnetic field of finite length. The field is assumed to be approximately force-free. The stability of the field to a kink perturbation is investigated. Flux ropes are rooted in dense photospheric material. So the ends of the field lines are taken to be fixed on rigid boundaries for all perturbations. An energy perturbation method is used and the boundary conditions give a stabilizing effect. It is shown that for a moderate degree of twisting the fields are stable to a kink perturbation. Thus energy can be stored in cylindrical fields prior to release in a solar flare.