Magnetic field relaxation and current sheets in an ideal plasma

Abstract

We investigate the existence of magnetohydrostatic equilibria for topologically complex magnetic fields. The approach employed is to perform ideal numerical relaxation experiments. We use a newly-developed Lagrangian relaxation scheme that exactly preserves the magnetic field topology during the relaxation. Our configurations include both twisted and sheared fields, of which some fall into the category for which Parker (1972) predicted no force-free equilibrium. The first class of field considered contains no magnetic null points, and field lines connect between two perfectly conducting plates. In these cases we observe only resolved current layers of finite thickness. In further numerical experiments we confirm that magnetic null points are loci of singular currents.

8 pages, 13 figures

References in corpus (4)

• The structure of current layers and degree of field line braiding in coronal loops
• Lagrangian relaxation schemes for calculating force-free magnetic fields, and their limitations
• Dynamical Relaxation of Coronal Magnetic Fields. III. 3D Spiral Nulls
• Current singularities in line-tied three-dimensional magnetic fields

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Braided magnetic fields: equilibria, relaxation and heating
• Coronal heating in multiple magnetic threads
• Ideal Relaxation of the Hopf Fibration
• Constructing current singularity in a 3D line-tied plasma
• On the limitations of magneto-frictional relaxation
• Do chaotic field lines cause fast reconnection in coronal loops?
• Topological structures of velocity and electric field in the vicinity of a cusp-type magnetic null point