Reconnection-Condensation Model for Solar Prominence Formation

Abstract

We propose a reconnection-condensation model in which topological change in a coronal magnetic field via reconnection triggers radiative condensation, thereby resulting in prominence formation. Previous observational studies have suggested that reconnection at a polarity inversion line of a coronal arcade field creates a flux rope that can sustain a prominence; however, they did not explain the origin of cool dense plasmas of prominences. Using three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations including anisotropic nonlinear thermal conduction and optically thin radiative cooling, we demonstrate that reconnection can lead not only to flux rope formation but also to radiative condensation under a certain condition. In our model, this condition is described by the Field length, which is defined as the scale length for thermal balance between radiative cooling and thermal conduction. This critical condition depends weakly on the artificial background heating. The extreme ultraviolet emissions synthesized with our simulation results have good agreement with observational signatures reported in previous studies.

22 pages, 11 figures, accepted to ApJ

References in corpus (5)

• Numerical simulations of quiet Sun magnetism: On the contribution from a small-scale dynamo
• Emergence of a Helical Flux Rope Under an Active Region Prominence
• The Dynamics of Funnel Prominences
• Solar prominences: 'double, double ... boil and bubble'
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Cited by in corpus (14)

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• Self-consistent 3D radiative MHD simulations of coronal rain formation and evolution
• The influence of flux rope heating models on solar prominence formation
• Coronal Condensation as the Source of Transition Region Supersonic Downflows above a Sunspot
• Filament Eruption and Its Reformation Caused by Emerging Magnetic Flux
• Formation of coronal rain triggered by impulsive heating associated with magnetic reconnection
• Relation of coronal rain originating from coronal condensations to interchange magnetic reconnection
• On-disk solar coronal condensations facilitated by magnetic reconnection between open and closed magnetic structures
• Reconfiguration and eruption of a solar filament by magnetic reconnection with an emerging magnetic field
• Plasmoid-fed prominence formation (PF${}^2$) during flux rope eruption
• Formation of a solar filament by magnetic reconnection and coronal condensation
• Flat U-Net: An Efficient Ultralightweight Model for Solar Filament Segmentation in Full-disk H$\alpha$ Images