Electric Current Circuits in Astrophysics

Abstract

Cosmic magnetic structures have in common that they are anchored in a dynamo, that an external driver converts kinetic energy into internal magnetic energy, that this magnetic energy is transported as Poynting flux across the magnetically dominated structure, and that the magnetic energy is released in the form of particle acceleration, heating, bulk motion, MHD waves, and radiation. The investigation of the electric current system is particularly illuminating as to the course of events and the physics involved. We demonstrate this for the radio pulsar wind, the solar flare, and terrestrial magnetic storms.

ISSI Workshop on Structures in cosmic plasmas. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11214-014-0041-y

References in corpus (5)

• Impulsive phase flare energy transport by large-scale Alfven waves and the electron acceleration problem
• Abrupt changes in photospheric magnetic and Lorentz-force vectors during neutral-line flares
• Propagation of Alfvénic Waves From Corona to Chromosphere and Consequences for Solar Flares
• Differentially rotating force-free magnetosphere of an aligned rotator: analytical solutions in split-monopole approximation
• Radiation from Comoving Poynting Flux Acceleration