Relaxation of current-carrying flux tubes and flux rope formation
POSTER
Abstract
Flux ropes are ubiquitous structures in space and laboratory plasma environments. Although their equilibrium states have been extensively studied, how they relax from non-equilibrium states is an important process that has been relatively less explored. By analogy to previous studies on current sheets, particle orbits are analyzed and their phase-space trajectories are studied. Analytical calculations show that orbital transitions must occur in a non-equilibrium current sheet and leave distinct footprints in the phase-space distributions. These footprints are verified by kinetic simulations of disequilibrated current sheets, confirming the relaxation process. It is shown that any small parallel current will relax to a flux rope configuration.
*This work was supported by the POSCO Science Fellowship of POSCO TJ Park Foundation, and by an appointment to the JRG Program at the APCTP through the Science and Technology Promotion Fund and Lottery Fund of the Korean Government. This work. was also supported by the Korean Local Governments—Gyeongsangbuk-do Province and Pohang City. The particle-in-cell simulations presented here were conducted on the KAIROS computing cluster at Korea Institute of Fusion Energy.
Presenters
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Young Dae Yoon
- Asia-Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics