A complete solar coronal loop stability analysis in ideal magnetohydrodynamics: I. Non-force-free cylindrical equilibria

R. A.M. Van Der Linden*, A. W. Hood

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

A procedure is introduced to perform a complete ideal MHD stability analysis of one-dimensional cylindrical equilibrium models for coronal loops, including the important effect of line-tying. The stability is completely determined by calculating the critical (marginally stable) length for the onset of ideal MHD instabilities for every azimuthal wave number m. The analysis consists of the combination of a WKB method to determine the critical length of intermediate to high (infinite) values of m with a numerical code (using bicubic finite elements) for the low to intermediate values of m. As before it is found that for large enough m the critical length can be expressed as l c = l 0 + l 1 /m It is also demonstrated that in general either the m = 1 or the m → ∞ mode has the shortest critical length, the former being the first to become unstable for nearly force-free magnetic fields, the latter for strongly non-force-free fields. Therefore, a stability analysis of these two modes will normally suffice, with perhaps a need for some more numerical calculations near the point where the modes cross over. The combination of these two tools provides a complete stability assessment.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)887-896
Number of pages10
JournalAstronomy and Astrophysics
Volume339
Issue number3
Publication statusPublished - 20 Nov 1998

Keywords

  • MHD
  • Plasmas
  • Sun: corona
  • Sun: magnetic fields

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