Comments on pulses of characteristic energy produced in solar flare detonations and its possible application to other astrophysical plasmas
Tipo
Artigo
Data de publicação
1977
Periódico
Astrophysics and Space Science
Citações (Scopus)
1
Autores
Kaufmann P.
Orientador
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ISSN da Revista
Título de Volume
Membros da banca
Programa
Resumo
A qualitative discussion of physical conditions at neutral sheets was developed in an attempt to explain the repetitive pulsed energy-production mechanism, which has been suggested for solar flares. A characteristic energy per pulse appears to depend critically on the magnetic field strength and dipole length applied to a high temperature plasma, and seem to be regulated by discrete characteristic relative changes in the magnetic moment, following Syrovatskii's model. Discrete energy pulses are produced when neutral sheet thickness approaches to critical values, proportional to the characteristic relative changes in the magnetic moment. Repetition of pulses may occur in multi-sheet configurations at magnetically complex active centres, or at a single sheet where the total system energy change exceeds the critical conditions. The time-scale of the pulsed energy release may be explained by the tearing mode instability, and the repetition time-scale might be understood by the Sweet mechanism in limit conditions. The mechanism might have attractive applications in other high temperature astrophysical plasma. An empirical relation is derived for pulses' energy prediction, in orders of magnitude, and some possible tests were suggested. An attempt was made to interpret soft γ-ray events of cosmic origin. © 1977 D. Reidel Publishing Company.