Evolution and nature of north-south asymmetry in the heliospheric current sheet

The nature and evolution of north-south asymmetry in the heliospheric current sheet (HCS) has been investigated using solar and interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) observations for the past few solar cycles. The mean heliographic latitude of the HCS (averaged over the solar longitude) a ₀ is found to be non-zero during many solar rotations indicating that the large-scale solar magnetic field is more ordered in a system where the origin is shifted away from the centre of the Sun. We have shown that the asymmetry in HCS manifests in different forms depending on the transition heliographic latitude of the reversal of dominant polarity of the IMF ( _T) and the difference in the maximum latitudinal extension of the HCS in the two solar hemispheres (). The classification of the observed asymmetry during 1971–1985 and its effect on IMF observations near Earth has been studied. We have also inferred the sign of _T during 1947–1971 using inferred IMF polarity data. The observed sign reversals of _T suggest the importance of periodicities less than the solar cycle period to be associated with the evolution of asymmetry in HCS. Asymmetry in sunspot activity about the solar equator does not seem to relate consistently well with the asymmetry in HCS about the heliographic equator.     

Magnetic field energy dissipation in neutral current sheets

An extended current sheet characterized by two peculiarities was formed in a configuration with opposite magnetic fields in a laboratory plasma on a -pinch device. First, development of the small scale turbulence leads to abnormal low sheet conductivity, through-sheet plasma diffusion and establishes the sheet thickness an order greater than the skin thicknessc/ _pe ( _pe is electron plasma frequency). Second, there develops and quickly stabilizes in a sheet the magnetic force line reconnection. As a result, a stable neutral sheet has the complicated structure of a magnetic field, including closed magnetic loops elongated along the axis of the system. The neutral sheet plasma becomes intensively heated, probably due to ion-sound turbulence, while a group of accelerated electrons, which on the energy spectrum lead to a plateau formation, are observed. The absence of any predominant direction is a typical feature for the motion of accelerated particles. The experimental data, obtained over a broad range of plasma densities and magnetic field values typical for the solar atmosphere, show that the antiparallel magnetic field turbulent dissipation could play an important role in the mechanism of solar energy release. The parameters of accelerated particles (energy 4–12 keV, the energy content being 10^–1–10² of all the energy dissipated in a sheet) agree nicely with the data of astrophysical observations.     

A theoretical prediction of ion plasma oscillations in a neutral sheet

Starting from the Vlasov equation the steady state and stability properties of the electron sheet in the Cowley neutral sheet model of the geomagnetic tail are considered. Electrostatic ion plasma oscillations propagating from dusk to dawn are found to be unstable provided the thermal spread normal to the current is sufficiently large. Assuming the population of the neutral sheet to be supplied by the polar wind it is shown how a localisation of the cross tail electric field could lead to the instability first appearing around midnight. It is conjectured that the localisation of the cross tail electric field could continually feed the instability, so leading to enough turbulence to give enhanced reconnection of the magnetic field.List of symbols f distribution function - B magnetic field strength far from the neutral sheet - a sheet half thickness - total potential drop across the tail which is localised to the dusk end of the tail in Cowley's model - potential for the steady state electric field normal to the electron current sheet. This potential exists in that region of the tail that excludes the localised region of cross tail electric field - average velocity across the tail of electrons in the current sheet - v average velocity of the electrons normal to the current sheet - p canonical momentum of a particle - energy of a particle - KT electron energy normal to the sheet (1/2m ^e v ² ) - KT ⁱ ion energy (1/2m ⁱ V ² ) - electron gyrofrequency far from the neutral sheet - ⁱ ion gyrofrequency far from the neutral sheet - Ay steady state vector potential for the magnetic field - A –Ay/aB ₀ (normalised vector potential) When perturbing the steady state, dashes have been used to denote the time dependent first order quantities. Where no confusion could arise the dashes are dropped, e.g.Ey=Ey since there is no zero orderEy in the region considered in the stability analysis.     

Containment of an adiabatic plasma on magnetic lines of force by a self-generated electrostatic field

One component of a three-fluid adiabatic plasma is under certain conditions contained in a restricted region of space by a large-scale electrostatic field generated within the plasma. The containment is discussed here for plasma consisting of ions and two populations of electrons characterized by different pitch angle distribution functions.The bouncing motion of electrons along open fieldlines between a magnetic mirror and an electrostatic mirror produces a velocity distribution function similar to that generated by bouncing particles on closed fieldlines.     

Isothermal self-similar blast wave theory of supernova remnants driven by relativistic gas pressure

We investigate the spherically symmetric, self-similar flow behind a blast wave from a point explosion in a medium whose density varies with distance asr ^– with the assumption that the flow is both isothermal and contains a relativistic component of pressure. A self-similar solution is shown to exist only if both the blast wave speed,u _s ,and the local sound speed,w, are constant. If [(1–w ²/c ²)] lies in 1>>0, there exists a critical point in the radial distance-flow velocity plane. To be physically acceptable, the solution must pass through the origin and through the critical point and then through to the blast front; solution branches between these points exist, although a proper connection at the critical point has not been demonstrated. If <0, a continuous single-valued solution does not exist. If 2>>1, the critical point is beyond the blast curve and the flow is subsonic everywhere. For 2<<3, the critical point disappears, but a new one arises. To be physically acceptable, the flow must by-pass this new critical point. It is shown that it does. The dependence of the solutions of is non-analytic for <1, so that interpolation between neighboring values of is not permitted. We investigate the stability of these isothermal blast waves to spherically symmetric but non-self-similar perturbations. If 3>>3/2 or 0<<1, the solutions are shown to be definitively linearly unstable against short wavelength disturbances near the blast front, they are also unstable there in 3/2>>1 unless the flow meets the blast front atprecisely the velocity (normalized) of (2–1)^1/2/(3–2)^1/2. The solutions are also unstable for all in 1>>0 near the critical point. Since there is no characteristic time scale in the system, all the instabilities grow as a power law in time rather than exponentially. The existence of these instabilities implies that initial deviations do not decay and the system does not tend to a self-similar form. We conclude that isothermal self-similar blast waves do not provide a valid model for a supernova remnant driven by a relativistic gas pressure. Since the validity of the adiabatic blast wave models has elsewhere been shown to be questionable, it is doubtful whether the self-similar property can be involved at all in the case of supernova remnants. This raises serious questions of interpretation of quantities deduced for supernova remnants on the basis of the use of self-similar models.     

Nature of the fine structure of the middle chromosphere

Fine dark H filaments fibrils form at the limb, apparently in most of the middle chromosphere corresponding to an altitude between 1500–2000 km and 4000 km. The space in between filaments is corona and the transition layer. The cool gas in fibrils is protected by the magnetic field against the conductive flux out of the hot corona. Therefore the fibrils stretch up to 4000 km where their temperature is about 18 000 K and the density about 5 × 10⁹ cm^–3. The gas in the fibrils is ionized by electronic collisions and by the external ultraviolet radiation. The second level of the hydrogen atoms in fibrils is populated by recombinations, electronic collisions and by Ly- quanta. The calculated optical thickness of the fibrils in H is about 1, it explains the absorption features on the spectroheliograms. The gas pressure in fibrils is lower than the coronal pressure, and the pressure equilibrium is achieved by a magnetic field of about 1.5–2 G. In the active regions the photospheric fields are stronger, therefore the fibrils in active regions are wider and show more contrast. The emission of the fibrils at the limb is explained by the scattering of the solar radiation. The temperature in arches reaching as high as 5000–6000 km, is stabilized near the top by the HeII emission. Thus the middle chromosphere is essentially a collection of magnetic arches.     

Pulsar radio emission from expanding charge sheets

We semi-quantitatively calculate the distribution of energy in frequency and angle emitted from a sheet of charges that are moving out relativistically along dipolar magnetic field lines originating near the magnetic polar caps of a rotating neutron star. The angular distribution is conical with the angle of maximum intensity varying with frequency as ^–1/4 for _c 2 _c /(R _M ²), whereR_M is the initial angular radius of the charge sheet at the surface of the star of radiusR. At higher frequencies the width of the angular cone remains constant. The radiation is linearly polarized with the polarization vector in the plane of the line of sight and the magnetic axis. A sheet of uniform charge density and finite thickness has a frequency spectrum that varies from ^–3/2 to ^–4 for _c and _c , respectively. These features are in good general agreement with the observed characteristics of the intensity, pulse shape, and frequency spectrum of the radio pulses from pulsars.Operated by Associated Universities, Inc., under contract with the National Science Foundation.     

Les raies du triplet de l'helium de la Nova Delphini 1967

The aim of this paper has been to study the neutral helium triplet emission lines identified in the spectrum of the envelope of Nova Delphini. By comparing the observed flux of the neutral helium lines with that calculated theoretically by Robbins, we find that the optical thickness in the center of the line 3889 is of the order of 21.50 for summer 1969. The optical thickness obtained by this method is here denoted _tran(3889).On the other hand, we obtain the number of neutral helium atoms in the 2³S state [N(2³S)] by considering the equilibrium between the mechanisms that populate and depopulate this state. We then find that the depopulation by photoionization due to the radiation of Ly (Hi), transitions to the 2¹S, 2¹p and 2³p states by electron collision, photoionization due to the continuum radiation of the central star, are 82.70%, 13.20%, 2.40%, 0.90% and 0.80% respectively. We find that the mechanism of the photoionization by Ly is the dominant mechanism of depopulation of 2³S state. We calculated ( 3889) of the order of 82.37, fromN(2³S), obtained in the preceding paragraph. The optical thickness obtained by this method is here denoted _bal(3889).The difference between _tran(3889) and _bal(3889) is very large and it cannot be attributed to calculation errors. We have considered all the mechanisms that can depopulate the 2³S state, so we then conclude that the difference between _tran(3889) and _bal(3889) is due to the heterogeneity of the envelope of the Nova, already found by us in our previous study of the profiles of the permitted and forbidden lines. Finally, we find from this study a filling factor of the order of 0.30.     

Maximum temperatures for radiation from plasma waves

We derive upper limits to the radiation temperaturesT ^t(k) for emission near the fundamental and second harmonic of the electron plasma frequency in terms of the effective temperature for plasma wavesT ^l(k). We findT ^t(k)(c/(3)^1/2 V _e)³ T ^l(k) for emission near the fundamental which differs from the result of Melrose (1970b) by the factor in parentheses. This factor can exceed 4×10⁴ in some plasmas. The conditions under which this limit could be reached are delinated. For emission near the second harmonicT ^t(k)T ^l(k) since the absorption coefficient in this case can only be positive.The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.     

Simulation for electron acceleration by DC electric field in the presence of ion sound waves and associated hard X-ray emission

Time-dependent Fokker-Planck equation was numerically solved to demonstrate the dynamics of electrons in a uniform coronal loop with an applied axial DC electric field in the presence of ion-sound waves. This electric field is attributed to an anomalous resistivity due to the ion-sound turbulence caused by an initially given critical current density.The electron momentum distribution becomes a steady state in the whole turbulent region in a short time for which some electrons can be accelerated to the maximum electric potential K _c. The steady energy distribution of electrons flowing out the end of the turbulent region has a very hard power-law-like spectrum with an index of about 0.75. The associated hard X-rays from a thick target also show a hard spectrum with a photon spectral index of 1.3. In order for to be much greater as observed in impulsive X-ray bursts, it is required that the source is a sum of many elementary loops with a power-law-like distribution in K _c with an index = – + 2.5.     

General-relativistic hierarchical cosmology: An exact model

An exact solution of Einstein's equation is stated in which the density (), pressure (p), scale factorS and metric coefficients are functions of only one dimensionless self-similar variable,ct/R, wheret is cosmic time andR is a co-moving radial coordinate. The solution represents a cosmology that begins as a static sphere having R ^–2 and evolves into an expanding model which is pressure-free and has a hierarchical type of density law ( R ^–, approximately, with =a number, 02). It is suggested that this model should supersede the previous models of Wesson and other workers, since it appears to be the simplest cosmology for a hierarchy.     

Some applications of Jacobi dynamics to the stellar evolution

The stars in the Main Sequence are seen as a hierarchy of objects with different massesM and effective dynamical radiiR _eff=R/ given by the stellar radii and the coefficients for the inner structure of the stars.As seen in a previous work (Paper I), during the lifetime in the Main SequenceR _eff(t) remains a near invariant when compared to the variation in the time ofR(t) and (t).With such an effectiveR _eff one obtains the amounts of actionA _c(M), the effective densities _eff(M)=(M)³(M), the densities of action and of energy (or mean presures in the stellar interior)a _c(M),e _c(M), and the potential energiesE _p(M).The amounts of action areA _cM ^k withk1.87 for the M stars,k5/3 for the KGF stars, andk1.83 for the A and earlier stars, representing very simples conditions for the other dynamical parameters. For instancek5/3 means a near invariant effective density _eff for the KGF stars, while for such stars the mean densities and coefficients present the strongest variations with masses (M)M ^–1.81, (M)M^0.6.The cases for the M stars (e _c(M)M ^–1) and for the A and earlier stars (betweena _c(M)=constant and _eff(M)M ^–1) and also discussed. These conditions for the earlier stars also represent reasonable mean values for the whole stellar hierarchy in the range of masses 0.2M M25M .With all this, one can build dynamical HR diagrams withA _c(M), E_p(M), _eff M ^–p , etc., whose characteristics are analogous to these in the photometrical HR diagram. A comparison is made betweenA _c(M) from the models here and the HR diagram with the best known stars of luminosity classes IV, V, and white dwarfs.The comparison of the potential energiesE _p(M)M ^–p according to the stellar models used here and the observed frequency function (MM _–q (number of stars in a given interval of masses) from different authors suggests the possibility that the productE _p(M)(M) is a constant, but this must be confirmed with further studies of the function (M) and its fine structure.There are analogies between the formulation used here for the stellar hierarchy and other physical processes, for instance, in modified forms of the Kolmogorov law of turbulence and in the formulation used for the hierarchy of molecular clouds in gravitational equilibrium. Besides, the function of actionA _c(M) for the stars has analogous properties to the relations of angular momenta and massesJ(M) for different types of objects. The cosmological implications of all this are discussed.     

Ion acoustic instability in the presence of plasma turbulence in the solar wind

The adiabatic theory of interaction between high and low frequency waves has been studied for the case of electron plasma oscillations and ion acoustic waves and the results are applied to the solar wind. The modified dispersion relation for ion acoustic waves has been derived, taking a Gaussian distribution for plasmons. Two limiting cases of the spectrum are studied. For a broad spectrum, the plasma turbulence has a destabilising effect by introducing a growth rate denoted by turbulence, which is positive for k ₀ > (m _e/ m _i )^1/2 _De ^–1 , k ₀ being the central wave numger of the spectrum, _De the electron Debye length. Also, even for v _d(drift velocity between electrons and ions) < c _s, we arrive at unstable ion acoustic modes. For narrow spectrum, the plasma turbulence has a stabilising effect.     

Frequency and time splitting of decameter solar radio bursts

The paper deals with the observations of the fine structure of type III bursts in the 12.5–25 MHz band using the UTR-2 (IRE AN UkSSR, Kharkov) radio telescope. A fine structure arises in the form of chains of short-lived narrow-band bursts. The chains have a frequency drift analogous to type III bursts. Observations allow two different-type chains to be singled out. Ordinary stria-bursts, split-pairs and triplets belong to the first type chains. They may also involve the echo-type phenomena The second type chains (IIId) involve diffusive stria-bursts, diffusive split-pairs and triplets. The analysis of a harmonic structure of chains incidates that the first type chains are generated at the frequencies close to the local plasma electron frequency _pe . The second type chains and, consequently, diffusive stria-bursts correspond to the second harmonic of the plasma frequency 2 _pe . Experimental data evidence that the type III bursts with a fine structure are excited by the faster particle streams than the ordinary type III bursts with a diffusive character both of the fundamental and the second harmonic.     

Bidimensional spectroscopy of network bright points

We develop an automatic, computer controlled procedure to select and to analyze the Network Bright Points (NBPs) on solar images. These have been obtained at the Sac Peak Vacuum Tower Telescope by means of the Universal Birefringent Filter and Zeiss H filters, tuned, respectively, along the profiles of the H, Mg-b1, Na-D2, and H lines.A structure is identified as an NBP if at the wavelength H- 1.5 A its maximum intensity is greater than I + 3 and its area is greater than 1.5 arc sec² at I + 1.5, where I is the mean value and the standard deviation of the intensity distribution on the image. Each detected NBP is then searched and confirmed in all the remaining 31 images at different wavelengths.For each NBP several parameters are measured (position, area, mean and maximum contrast, Dopplergram velocity, compactness, and so on) and some identification constraints are applied.The statistical analysis of the various parameter distributions, for NBPs present within an active region and its surroundings, shows that two types of NBPs can be identified according to the value of their mean contrast C _min the H- 1.5 Å image (C _m 0.1 type I, C _m> 0.1 type II). The type I NBPs (all occurring on the boundaries of the supergranular network) appear to be much more frequent (180/26) than the type II ones.The size A of type I NBPs is less than 1.0 arc sec for H/H wings but of the order of 1.2 arc sec for Na-D2 and Mg-bl. The mean contrast C _m is around the value of 10% along the Na-D2 and Mg-bl profiles and of 20% along the H/H wings.The C _m - A scatter diagrams show, for the photospheric radiation (h < 100 km), a narrow range of variability for C _min correspondence with a wide range for A. For radiation orginated at higher levels (h > 200 km), the C _m- A scatter diagrams seem to indicate, even if with a large variance, that the highest C _m's tend to correspond to the highest A values.The mean Doppler shift is close to zero for Na-D2 and Mg-bl lines but negative (downward motion) for H and H lines.The type II NBPs tends to be preferentially located in the neighbourhood of small, compact sunspots and their detectability is almost constant through all the 4 studied line profiles. No conclusions can be derived on the mean size, contrast and Doppler shift values because their distributions are too dispersed. The only positive information is that its C _m- A scatter diagram, in H and H wings, indicates a wide range of variability for C _m in correspondence with very narrow range of variability for A.     

Generation of acoustic and gravity waves by turbulence in an isothermal stratified atmosphere

Lighthill's method of calculating the aerodynamic emission of sound waves in a homogeneous atmosphere is extended to calculate the acoustic and gravity-wave emission by turbulent motions in a stratified atmosphere. The acoustic power output is P _ac 10³ _o u _o ³ /l _o M ⁵ ergs/cm³ sec, and the upward gravity wave flux is F _zgr 10² _o U _o ³ /l _o (l _o ergs/cm³ sec. Here u ₀ is the turbulence velocity scale, l ₀ is its length scale, and H the scale height at the atmosphere. M = u ₀/c ₀ is the Mach number of the turbulence. The acoustic power output is proportional to the maximum value of the turbulence spectrum, and inversely to its rate of falloff at high frequencies. The stratification cuts off the acoustic emission at low Mach numbers. The gravity emission occurs near the critical angle to the vertical _c = cos^–1 / ₂, where ₂ ² = ( - 1)/ ² (c ₀/H), and at very short wavelengths. It is proportional to the large wave number tail of the turbulence spectrum. On the sun, gravity-wave emission is much more efficient than acoustic, but can occur only from turbulent motions in stable regions, whereas acoustic waves are produced by turbulence in the convection zone.     

Convergence of Liapunov Series for Maclaurin Ellipsoids

According to the classical theory of equilibrium figures surfaces of equal density, potential and pressure concur (let call them isobars). Isobars may be represented by means of Liapunov power series in small parameter q, up to the first approximation coincident with centrifugal to gravitational force ratio on the equator. A. M. Liapunov has proved the existence of the universal convergence radius q : above mentioned series converge for all bodies if q < q . Using Liapunov's algorithm and symbolic calculus tools we have calculated q = 0.000370916. Evidently, convergence radius q ₀ may be much greater in non-pathological situations. We plan to examine several simplest cases. In the present paper, we find q ₀ for homogeneous liquid. The convergence radius turns out to be unexpectedly large coinciding with the upper boundary value q ₀ = 0.337 for Maclaurin ellipsoids.     

The effect of chemical abundance oscillations on the pulsational properties of A 5M ⊙ hydrogen-helium star

A model of a first generation intermediate star of 5M , with Z=0 has been considered. The model is at an advanced stage of its evolution and has a double shell burning. It burns helium in the inner shell, and hydrogen, via CNO cycle, in the outer shell. =(log/log) _T and _T =(log/logT) were computed allowing for the oscillations of the relative mass abundance of the reagents in nuclear reactions. Including =(log/log) _T and =(log/logT) of mean molecular weight and the effect of the oscillations of abundances due to nuclear reactions, stability was studied. Contrary to the results of the static calculations, we found that instability due to the excitation mechanism provided by the high temperature sensitivity of energy generation rate propagates up to the surface. Thus the model in question was found to be unstable against radial adiabatic pulsations, in its fundamental mode.     

On the inability of magnetically constricted transition regions to account for the 105 to 106 K plasma in the quiet solar atmosphere

Although back conduction from the corona has been shown to be inadequate for powering EUV emission below T 2 × 10⁵ K, it is thought to be adequate in the temperature range 2 × 10⁵ K < T < 10⁶ K. No models to date, however, have included the large magnetic constriction which should occur in the legs of coronal loops where conductive transition regions, hitherto thought to contain the bulk of the plasma in this higher temperature range, are located. On the basis of fine scale magnetograms, Dowdy et al. (1986) have estimated that these magnetic flux tubes are constricted from end to end by an areal factor of approximately 100. Furthermore, on the basis of simple steady-state conductive models, Dowdy et al. (1985) have shown that the large constriction can inhibit the conductive flow of heat by an order of magnitude. We are thus led to re-examine static models of this region of the atmosphere which incorporate not only conduction and radiation but also the effects of large magnetic constrictions. We find that the structure of this plasma depends not only on the magnitude of the constriction but also on the tube's shape.Our results show that no model with a constriction of order 100 can simultaneously (a) produce the variation of differential emission measure with temperature derived from measured line intensities and (b) satisfy the observed constraint (Reeves, 1976) that EUV emission from below T 7 × 10⁵ K be confined to the supergranular network, covering no more than 0.45 of the solar surface. The failure of the models suggests that the bulk of the 10⁵–10⁶ K plasma in the quiet solar atmosphere is not in transition region structures, but is instead magnetically isolated from the corona and heated internally. Even though the transition region component of 10⁵–10⁶ K plasma in the legs of coronal loops should exist, it comprises only a small fraction of the total 10⁵–10⁶ K plasma and, hence, produces only a small fraction of the observed EUV emission from this temperature range.We also find that for any permitted tube shape, constriction factors of order 100 reduce the coronal conductive energy losses to the transition region to a value which is less than a third of the value for an unconstricted field, i.e., to less than 2 × 10⁵ erg cm ^–2 s ^–1. In particular, if the magnetic geometry of the upper transition region is extremely concave (i.e., horn-shaped geometry with most of the areal divergence near the hot end), then a constriction of order 100 results in a conductive loss of less than 1 × 10⁴ erg cm^–2 s^–1 and, hence, much less than the coronal radiative energy loss. For such geometries, the constriction in the magnetic field hence provides an effective thermal insulation of the corona from the cooler parts of the solar atmosphere.Presidential Young Investigator.     

Large-amplitude low-frequency electromagnetic waves in pulsar magnetospheres

Nonlinear propagation of strong low-frequency waves, as emitted by pulsars or compact galactic nuclei at their rotation frequencies, in a magnetized plasma is investigated. It is shown that even rather small amplitude waves can drive electrons to ultrarelativistic energies. In the limit when the electrons are ultrarelativistic but the ions are immobile, two types of circularly polarized waves (i.e., ^± modes) are excited. In the wave zone of the Crab pulsar, both the electric field ( 3 V m^–1) and the wavelength (10⁸ m) of the ^- mode are larger, by an order of magnitude, than those of the ⁺ wave mode. Both ^± modes can become modulationally unstable due to their nonlinear interaction with density fluctuations induced by the electrostatic waves.