Identification

Title

On the spontaneous generation of three-dimensional magnetic nulls

Abstract

Three-dimensional magnetic nulls relate to magnetic topology, and are propitious for triggering solar coronal transients. Although abundant in nature, their generation is not established. This paper reports magnetohydrodynamic simulations indicating the nulls to be dissipative self-organized structures. Categorically, the results of two case studies are presented. First, a potential null located at the origin of a Cartesian coordinate system is subjected to a sinusoidal flow. The null is seen to bifurcate while conserving the net topological degree. Using the corresponding deformed magnetic field as an initial condition, the magnetofluid is subsequently evolved by dissipating its magnetic and kinetic energies through magnetic reconnection and viscous dissipation. In effect, a current-carrying null develops in the process. Second, another simulation is initiated with a modified Arnold-Beltrami-Childress (ABC) magnetic field which exerts a Lorentz force on the magnetofluid and has no nulls within the computational volume. Astoundingly, allowed the magnetofluid to relax, nulls having mixed topological degrees are generated. The modified ABC field being chaotic, the spontaneous appearance of nulls establishes emergence of ordered magnetic structures from chaos-a trait of self-organized structures-explaining their ubiquity in naturally existing plasmas.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7hq434k

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2020-03-25T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact