Irreversibility and the Point of No Return in the Evolution of Eruptive Active Regions
Abstract
We combine multiple methods and findings to demonstrate that those eruptive solar active regions that form intense photospheric magnetic polarity inversion lines (PILs) enter a domain of irreversible evolution that will unavoidably force them to erupt at least once, giving rise to a major flare and an associated fast CME. Electric currents, Lorentz forces, free magnetic energy storage, and magnetic helicity, all play major roles in bringing the magnetic configuration on the verge of instability. The inferred irreversibility stems from the conservative properties of magnetic helicity in high magnetic Reynolds-number plasmas. In addition, the long-standing and fiercely debated classification of eruptive magnetic structures into sheared arcades and flux ropes is found to be of relatively little meaning: by means of the evolution above, the simplest possible sheared-arcade structure may gradually evolve into a flux rope susceptible to the helical-kink and the torus instabilities, among other destabilization mechanisms. Research partially supported by the EU Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement No. PIRG07-GA-2010-268245 and by the European Union Social Fund (ESF) and Greek national funds through the Operational Program "Education and Lifelong Learning" of the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) - Research Funding Program: Thales. Investing in knowledge society through the European Social Fund.
- Publication:
-
40th COSPAR Scientific Assembly
- Pub Date:
- 2014
- Bibcode:
- 2014cosp...40E.966G