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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2026
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.01783 |
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| _version_ | 1866912998219579392 |
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| author | Lee, Jin-Yi Raymond, John C. Reeves, Katharine K. Shen, Chengcai Kahler, Stephen Moon, Yong-Jae Kim, Yeon-Han |
| author_facet | Lee, Jin-Yi Raymond, John C. Reeves, Katharine K. Shen, Chengcai Kahler, Stephen Moon, Yong-Jae Kim, Yeon-Han |
| contents | A flux rope eruption on September 10, 2017 provides unique observations of the plasma sheet beneath the rising flux rope. The plasma sheet is likely in a nonequilibrium state in terms of both ionization and the electron distribution function. We trace the evolution of a blob in the plasma sheet using observations from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory. We investigate the heating of plasma sheet material in the presence of non-Maxwellian electron distributions and nonequilibrium ionization. Our models compute time-dependent ion fractions, incorporating impulsive heating to various peak temperatures, continuous heating rates, and kappa values that represent the non-Maxwellian distribution. The statistically preferred models constrain the effective impulsive heating temperature to above 20~MK. High-temperature solutions are permitted only for very low kappa values, indicating that suprathermal electrons play a significant role. Impulsive heating dominates the energy budget, with continuous heating contributing approximately 6%-50% of the initial impulsive energy input. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_01783 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Heating of a plasma sheet in nonequilibrium ionization with nonthermal electrons Lee, Jin-Yi Raymond, John C. Reeves, Katharine K. Shen, Chengcai Kahler, Stephen Moon, Yong-Jae Kim, Yeon-Han Solar and Stellar Astrophysics A flux rope eruption on September 10, 2017 provides unique observations of the plasma sheet beneath the rising flux rope. The plasma sheet is likely in a nonequilibrium state in terms of both ionization and the electron distribution function. We trace the evolution of a blob in the plasma sheet using observations from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory. We investigate the heating of plasma sheet material in the presence of non-Maxwellian electron distributions and nonequilibrium ionization. Our models compute time-dependent ion fractions, incorporating impulsive heating to various peak temperatures, continuous heating rates, and kappa values that represent the non-Maxwellian distribution. The statistically preferred models constrain the effective impulsive heating temperature to above 20~MK. High-temperature solutions are permitted only for very low kappa values, indicating that suprathermal electrons play a significant role. Impulsive heating dominates the energy budget, with continuous heating contributing approximately 6%-50% of the initial impulsive energy input. |
| title | Heating of a plasma sheet in nonequilibrium ionization with nonthermal electrons |
| topic | Solar and Stellar Astrophysics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.01783 |