PIC Simulations of Excited Waves in the Plasmoid Instability

Fragmentation of an elongated current sheet into many reconnection X-points, and therefore multiple plasmoids, occurs frequently in the solar corona. This speeds up the release of solar magnetic energy in the form of thermal and kinetic energy. Moreover, due to the presence of multiple reconnection X-points, the particle acceleration is more efficient in terms of the number of accelerated particles. This type of instability called “plasmoid instability” is accompanied with the excitation of some electrostatic/electromagnetic waves. We carried out 2D particle-in-cell simulations of this instability in the collisionless regime, with the presence of non-uniform magnetic guide field to investigate the nature of excited waves. It is shown that the nature and properties of waves excited inside and outside the current sheet are different. While the outside perturbations are transient, the inside ones are long-lived, and are directly affected by the plasmoid instability process.

Cascaded H-Bridge Converter Based on Current-Source Inverter with DC Links Magnetically Coupled to Reduce the DC Inductors Value

The main drawback of the Cascaded-H Bridge converter based on three-phase/single-phase current-source inverters is the large DC inductors needed to limit the variation of the DC current caused by the single-phase inverter oscillating power. If the oscillating power is somehow compensated, then the DC inductor can be designed just as a function of the semiconductors’ switching frequency, reducing its value. This work explores the use of three-phase/single-phase cells magnetically coupled through their DC links to compensate for the oscillating power among them and, therefore, reduce the DC inductor value. At the same time, front ends controlled by a non-linear control strategy equalize the DC currents among coupled cells to avoid saturating the magnetic core. The effectiveness of the proposal is demonstrated using mathematical analysis and corroborated by computational simulation for a 110 kVA load per phase and experimental tests in a 2 kVA laboratory prototype. The outcomes show that for the tested cases, coupling the DC links by a 1:1 ratio transformer allows reducing the DC inductor value below 20% of the original DC inductor required. The above leads to reducing by 50% the amount of magnetic energy required in the DC link compared to the original topology without oscillating power compensation, keeping the quality of the cell input currents and the load voltage.

Evolution of Plasma Composition in an Eruptive Flux Rope

Magnetic flux ropes are bundles of twisted magnetic field enveloping a central axis. They harbor free magnetic energy and can be progenitors of coronal mass ejections (CMEs). However, identifying flux ropes on the Sun can be challenging. One of the key coronal observables that has been shown to indicate the presence of a flux rope is a peculiar bright coronal structure called a sigmoid. In this work, we show Hinode EUV Imaging Spectrometer observations of sigmoidal active region (AR) 10977. We analyze the coronal plasma composition in the AR and its evolution as a sigmoid (flux rope) forms and erupts as a CME. Plasma with photospheric composition was observed in coronal loops close to the main polarity inversion line during episodes of significant flux cancellation, suggestive of the injection of photospheric plasma into these loops driven by photospheric flux cancellation. Concurrently, the increasingly sheared core field contained plasma with coronal composition. As flux cancellation decreased and a sigmoid/flux rope formed, the plasma evolved to an intermediate composition in between photospheric and typical AR coronal compositions. Finally, the flux rope contained predominantly photospheric plasma during and after a failed eruption preceding the CME. Hence, plasma composition observations of AR 10977 strongly support models of flux rope formation by photospheric flux cancellation forcing magnetic reconnection first at the photospheric level then at the coronal level.

Two Correlations with Enhancement Near the Proton Gyroradius Scale in Solar Wind Turbulence: Parker Solar Probe (PSP) and Wind Observations

Based on the Parker Solar Probe mission, this paper presents the observations of two correlations in solar wind turbulence near the Sun for the first time, demonstrating the clear existence of the following two correlations. One is positive correlation between the proton temperature and turbulent magnetic energy density. The other is negative correlation between the spectral index and magnetic helicity. It is found that the former correlation has a maximum correlation coefficient (CC) at the wavenumber k ρ p ≃ 0.5 (ρ p being the proton thermal gyroradius), and the latter correlation has a maximum absolute value of CC at k ρ p ≃ 1.8. In addition, investigations based on 11 yr of Wind observations reveal that the dimensionless wavenumbers (k ρ p ) corresponding to the maximum (absolute) values of CC remain nearly the same for different data sets. These results tend to suggest that the two correlations enhanced near the proton gyroradius scale would be a common feature of solar wind turbulence.

Driving Galactic Outflows with Magnetic Fields at Low and High Redshift

Although galactic outflows play a key role in our understanding of the evolution of galaxies, the exact mechanism by which galactic outflows are driven is still far from being understood and, therefore, our understanding of associated feedback mechanisms that control the evolution of galaxies is still plagued by many enigmas. In this work, we present a simple toy model that can provide insight on how non-axisymmetric instabilities in galaxies (bars, spiral arms, warps) can lead to local exponential magnetic field growth by radial flows beyond the equipartition value by at least two orders of magnitude on a timescale of a few 100 Myr. Our predictions show that the process can lead to galactic outflows in barred spiral galaxies with a mass-loading factor η ≈ 0.1, in agreement with our numerical simulations. Moreover, our outflow mechanism could contribute to an understanding of the large fraction of barred spiral galaxies that show signs of galactic outflows in the chang-es survey. Extending our model shows the importance of such processes in high-redshift galaxies by assuming equipartition between magnetic energy and turbulent energy. Simple estimates for the star formation rate in our model together with cross correlated masses from the star-forming main sequence at redshifts z ∼ 2 allow us to estimate the outflow rate and mass-loading factors by non-axisymmetric instabilities and a subsequent radial inflow dynamo, giving mass-loading factors of η ≈ 0.1 for galaxies in the range of M ⋆ = 109–1012 M ⊙, in good agreement with recent results of sinfoni and kmos 3D.

High-frequency Magnetic Fluctuations in Space Plasmas and the Role of Electron Landau Damping

While low-frequency plasma fluctuations in the interplanetary space have been successfully described in the framework of classical turbulence, high-frequency fluctuations still represent a challenge for theoretical models. At these scales, kinetic plasma processes are at work, but although some of them have been identified in spacecraft measurements, their global effects on observable quantities are sometimes not fully understood. In this paper we present a new framework to the aim of describing the observed magnetic energy spectrum and directly identify in the data the presence of Landau damping as the main collisionless dissipative process in the solar wind.

Observational Signatures of Tearing Instability in the Current Sheet of a Solar Flare

Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental physical process converting magnetic energy into not only plasma energy but also particle energy in various astrophysical phenomena. In this Letter, we show a unique data set of a solar flare where various plasmoids were formed by a continually stretched current sheet. Extreme ultraviolet images captured reconnection inflows, outflows, and particularly the recurring plasma blobs (plasmoids). X-ray images reveal nonthermal emission sources at the lower end of the current sheet, presumably as large plasmoids with a sufficiently amount of energetic electrons trapped in them. In the radio domain, an upward, slowly drifting pulsation structure, followed by a rare pair of oppositely drifting structures, was observed. These structures are supposed to map the evolution of the primary and the secondary plasmoids formed in the current sheet. Our results on plasmoids at different locations and scales shed important light on the dynamics, plasma heating, particle acceleration, and transport processes in the turbulent current sheet and provide observational evidence for the cascading magnetic reconnection process.