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arXiv 2102.06464astro-ph.SR
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扭转Alfven波驱动的非均匀冠状环向turbulence的转变

Transition to turbulence in nonuniform coronal loops driven by torsional Alfven waves

S. Diaz-Suarez, R. Soler

摘要:

观测和数值模拟都表明,阿尔文波可能携带足够的能量来维持太阳大气等离子体的高温。然而,波能的热化是低效的,除非考虑非常短的空间尺度。相混合是一种可以将能量降低到耗散长度的机制,但它的作用时间太长。在这里,我们研究如何湍流,驱动的相位混合扭转阿尔芬波在日冕环的非线性演化,是能够采取波能量下降到耗散尺度比线性相位混合理论预测的要快得多。我们考虑一个简单的模型,横向不均匀的圆柱形磁通管与恒定的轴向磁场。通量管受到扭转阿尔芬驻波基本模式的扰动。通过数值求解三维理想磁流体动力学方程,研究了磁流体的时间演化。最初,扭转Alfven波由于密度的横向变化而经历相位混合的过程。在仅仅几个周期的扭转波之后,由相混合产生的方位角剪切流最终触发开尔文-亥姆霍兹不稳定性(KHi),并且通量管随后被驱动到湍流状态。湍流是非常各向异性的,并且仅横向于背景磁场发展。在湍流开始后,有效雷诺数在通量管中的下降速度远远快于仅由相混合控制的初始线性阶段。我们的结论是扭转阿尔芬波的非线性演化,以及相关的KHi,是一个可行的机制,在日冕循环湍流的发病。

英文摘要:

Both observations and numerical simulations suggest that Alfvenic waves may carry sufficient energy to sustain the hot temperatures of the solar atmospheric plasma. However, the thermalization of wave energy is inefficient unless very short spatial scales are considered. Phase mixing is a mechanism that can take energy down to dissipation lengths, but it operates over too long a timescale. Here, we study how turbulence, driven by the nonlinear evolution of phase-mixed torsional Alfven waves in coronal loops, is able to take wave energy down to the dissipative scales much faster than the theory of linear phase mixing predicts. We consider a simple model of a transversely nonuniform cylindrical flux tube with a constant axial magnetic field. The flux tube is perturbed by the fundamental mode of standing torsional Alfven waves. We solved the three-dimensional (3D) ideal magnetohydrodynamics equations numerically to study the temporal evolution. Initially, torsional Alfven waves undergo the process of phase mixing because of the transverse variation of density. After only few periods of torsional waves, azimuthal shear flows generated by phase mixing eventually trigger the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHi), and the flux tube is subsequently driven to a turbulent state. Turbulence is very anisotropic and develops transversely only to the background magnetic field. After the onset of turbulence, the effective Reynolds number decreases in the flux tube much faster than in the initial linear stage governed by phase mixing alone. We conclude that the nonlinear evolution of torsional Alfven waves, and the associated KHi, is a viable mechanism for the onset of turbulence in coronal loops.

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