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Main Authors: Srivastava, A. K., Mondal, Sripan, Priest, Eric R., Mishra, Sudheer K., Pontin, David I., Kwon, R. Y., Yuan, Ding, Murawski, K., Asai, Ayumi
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.16300
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author Srivastava, A. K.
Mondal, Sripan
Priest, Eric R.
Mishra, Sudheer K.
Pontin, David I.
Kwon, R. Y.
Yuan, Ding
Murawski, K.
Asai, Ayumi
author_facet Srivastava, A. K.
Mondal, Sripan
Priest, Eric R.
Mishra, Sudheer K.
Pontin, David I.
Kwon, R. Y.
Yuan, Ding
Murawski, K.
Asai, Ayumi
contents The Sun's outer atmosphere, the corona, is maintained at mega-Kelvin temperatures and fills the heliosphere with a supersonic outflowing wind. The dissipation of magnetic waves and direct electric currents are likely to be the most significant processes for heating the corona, but a lively debate exists on their relative roles. Here, we suggest that the two are often intrinsically linked, since magnetic waves may trigger current dissipation, and impulsive reconnection can launch magnetic waves. We present a study of the first of these processes by using a 2D physics-based numerical simulation using the Adaptive Mesh Refined (AMR) Versatile Advection Code (VAC). Magnetic waves such as fast magnetoacoustic waves are often observed to propagate in the large-scale corona and interact with local magnetic structures. The present numerical simulations show how the propagation of magnetic disturbances towards a null point or separator can lead to the accumulation of the electric currents. Lorentz forces can laterally push and vertically stretch the magnetic fields, forming a current sheet with a strong magnetic-field gradient. The magnetic field lines then break and reconnect, and so contribute towards coronal heating. Numerical results are presented that support these ideas and support the concept of a symbiosis between waves and reconnection in heating the solar corona.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_16300
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Localized Heating and Dynamics of the Solar Corona due to a Symbiosis of Waves and Reconnection
Srivastava, A. K.
Mondal, Sripan
Priest, Eric R.
Mishra, Sudheer K.
Pontin, David I.
Kwon, R. Y.
Yuan, Ding
Murawski, K.
Asai, Ayumi
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
The Sun's outer atmosphere, the corona, is maintained at mega-Kelvin temperatures and fills the heliosphere with a supersonic outflowing wind. The dissipation of magnetic waves and direct electric currents are likely to be the most significant processes for heating the corona, but a lively debate exists on their relative roles. Here, we suggest that the two are often intrinsically linked, since magnetic waves may trigger current dissipation, and impulsive reconnection can launch magnetic waves. We present a study of the first of these processes by using a 2D physics-based numerical simulation using the Adaptive Mesh Refined (AMR) Versatile Advection Code (VAC). Magnetic waves such as fast magnetoacoustic waves are often observed to propagate in the large-scale corona and interact with local magnetic structures. The present numerical simulations show how the propagation of magnetic disturbances towards a null point or separator can lead to the accumulation of the electric currents. Lorentz forces can laterally push and vertically stretch the magnetic fields, forming a current sheet with a strong magnetic-field gradient. The magnetic field lines then break and reconnect, and so contribute towards coronal heating. Numerical results are presented that support these ideas and support the concept of a symbiosis between waves and reconnection in heating the solar corona.
title Localized Heating and Dynamics of the Solar Corona due to a Symbiosis of Waves and Reconnection
topic Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.16300