On a possible mechanism of solar faculae heating

A new mechanism of solar faculae heating is suggested. Interaction of the convective motion with the magnetic field results in decrease of its scale down to values providing for an ohmic dissipation and leading to heating at the photospheric level. Photospheric magnetic fields, faculae and granulation are considered as a combined problem. The heating mechanism causes the observed correlation of faculae brightness with the velocity field. Some points of observation are proposed for examining the action of the suggested mechanism. The effective decreasing of the magnetic field scale may be responsible for the origin of the fine structure. The model does not contradict generally accepted ideas on the active region development.     

A possible mechanism of jet formation in the nuclei of radio galaxies

A hypothesis is being put forward that the formation of jets in the nuclei of radio galaxies is due to a high-speed energy excretion (explosion) in the accretion disk around a massive black hole. The explosion can be induced, for example, by a fall of the star into the black hole. For the accretion disk featuring an exponential high-density distribution, an asymmetrical explosion can be obtained: the shock front moves in the direction of decreasing the density accelerately and achieves the relativistic velocity swiftly, carrying away the most fraction of the explosion energy. Radio emission of the jet involves synchrotron radiation of relativistic electrons which are accelerated by such shock wave in the magnetic field driven up by the shock front.     

A model of solar flares and faculae

Theories of solar flares based on the storage of energy (usually as magnetic energy) in the solar atmosphere are shown to be incompatible with observational data.The sunspot energy deficit and the photospheric faculae both involve energy fluxes comparable with the flare requirement ( 3 × 10²⁹ erg s^–1). Both also require a subsurface system of waves or oscillations, perhaps those discussed by Danielson and Savage and by Wilson. The flare model proposed is based on a temporary diversion of this energy carried by Alfvén waves through spots and magnetic elements or micro-pores; the calculated plasma perturbation velocity in the umbra is about 6 km s^–1 for a major flare.In the atmosphere the wave energy divides into two parts to produce the cool, stationary optical flare and the particle flare. The first part is dissipated around flux tubes which are mainly horizontal in the chromosphere and which tend to concentrate along the magnetic neutral line (B = 0). Each tube vibrates individually as a taut wire in a viscous fluid, to excite the fluid just outside the tube. The second part of the energy emerges along tubes mainly vertical in the chromosphere and is converted to shock waves in the corona and then to particle energy for the radio and X-ray flare and the blast wave.The model includes white-light faculae, quasi-permanent X-ray and fast-particle emissions, sympathetic flares and surges. An unambiguous test would be provided by observations of plasma motions of a few kilometres per second in spots and micro-pores.     

A possible formation mechanism of the asymmetry in the H2O maser emission line

We present a possible formation mechanism of the asymmetry in the maser emission line of H₂O sources associated with star-forming regions. Observations with the RT-22 radio telescope at the Pushchino Radio Astronomy Observatory are used. We analyze the line profiles of emission features in the sources G43.8-0.1, NGC 2071, and ON1. If the line is asymmetric, the left (low-velocity) wing is higher than the right wing. The proposed mechanism accounts for the observed asymmetry and makes it possible to estimate some physical parameters of the medium in the vicinity of a maser spot.     

Structure and physics of solar faculae

Si iv, C iv, and O vi resonance lines have been measured above quiet and active solar regions from both pointed OSO-8 instruments. From calibrated profiles, optical depths are computed with three different methods. All three methods provide evidence that the opacity above faculae is lower than above the quiet Sun. From lower and upper limits of the opacity, we derive limits of the electron density. Our first method assumes only that the source function is constant without any geometrical constraint. We find higher densities above faculae than above quiet regions (about a factor 10). A second method allows us to compute the density, temperature gradient and thickness of a plane-parallel model, for active and quiet Sun. Electron densities agree with those of the first method but they lie in the lower range of values previously determined from Skylab. This result can be explained by the moderate level activity of the observed faculae. Appendices give relevant elements of transfer theory and newly computed values of collisional rates.     

On the possible mechanism of formation of emission rim in hydrogen filaments

Hα filtergrams of the chromosphere show an emission rim in many hydrogen filaments. We suppose that formation of this rim is due to photospheric radiation reflected by the filament in the direction of the chromosphere. The calculations show that: (1) the maximum contrast of the rim relative to the undisturbed chromosphere amounts to 1.4; (2) the larger the optical thickness of the filament and the closer to the solar limb it is situated, the brighter and wider is the rim; (3) the rim was not observed in filaments whose heights exceeds 10000km above the chromosphere. These results are in close agreement with observations.     

A possible radio emission mechanism for pulsars

The magnetic field in the neutron-proton-electron (npe) layer of a neutron star is caused by quasi-stationary vortex current of superconducting and normal protons relative to the normal electrons. The same current generates the radio emission due to the Josephson effect. The radiation propagates in the magnetically-active medium and goes out the crust through the cracks to the magnetosphere (npe-layer is optically thick layer). As a result the hot radiospots on the star surface develop and a resulting polarized radiation pattern near the magnetic poles is formed. The cross-section of this radiation pattern gives the observed pulse structure of the pulsar. The variations of quasi-stationary vortex current can result in the amplitude-frequency variations of the radiation spectrum due to specific properties of the radiation mechanism. From this we have the variations of the fine spectrum structure, pulse amplitude and pulse structure and the correlation of them with the spectral index variations of pulsars in this model.     

Structure and physics of solar faculae

The OSO-8 satellite enabled us to study various characteristics of the profiles of Si ii, Si iv, C iv, and O vi lines above active areas of the Sun, as well as above quiet areas, and to derive some physical properties of the transition region between chromosphere and corona (CCT): (i) The study of the lines shows a general tendency for the microvelocity fields on the average to be nearly constant for the heights corresponding to T > 10⁵ K; however they seem to slightly increase with height in quiet areas, and decrease in active areas. (ii) A multicomponent model of the CCT is however quite necessary, and its geometry is far from being a set of plane-parallel columns. It is similar to an association of moving knots within the non-moving principal component of the matter. (iii) The proportion of mass, in the knots relative to that in the non-moving component, is several times larger in active regions than in quiet regions. (iv) In the knots, the non-thermal microvelocity fields are smaller in active regions and seem to decrease for T increasing above 10⁵ K, contrary to what happens in the steady principal component. Of course, we consider that microturbulence and Doppler shift are two aspects of the same distribution of velocity.     

Continuum photometry of solar white-light faculae

We have determined absolute continuum intensities and brightness temperatures of individual facular grains at a spatial resolution limited by the =50 cm aperture of the SVST on La Palma. A facular region at 57° was observed simultaneously in three narrow continuum windows at 450.5, 658.7, and 863.5 nm. We corrected for image degradation by the Earth's atmosphere using the speckle masking method. The brightness temperatures do not exactly follow the Planck law. The differences of T _blue–T _red=220 K and T _ir–T _red=–42 K reflect the wavelength dependence of the continuum formation depth. The (red) temperatures of 250 facular grains show excesses between 250 and 450 K above their undisturbed neighborhood. The wavelength dependence of the relative intensity ratios C= [I ^fac/I ^phot] show a large scatter around mean values of C _blue/C _red=1.075 and C _ir/C _red=0.98. We determined the center-to-limb variation of the 863.5 nm continuum contrast for 0.17>cos>0.39 by measuring 270 grains in reconstructed facular images. The upper envelope of the data points increases linearly to 1.5 at cos=0.17. Application of the mean color dependence yields green contrasts up to C ₅₅₀=1.7, which is far higher than previously observed values. The behaviour for cos>0.17 is estimated from (unreconstructed) frame-selected best images taken over a time interval of 7 hours. Six distinct facular regions clearly discernible during the whole time interval indicate a slight contrast decrease towards the extreme limb. The observed quantities are useful for an adjustment of model calculations and for a discrimination of competing models.     

Polar faculae and sunspot cycles

The monthly number of polar faculae of the Sun were determined from white-light images at spectral band (eff) = (4100 ± 200) Å obtained at the Kislovodsk Solar Station during 1960–1994. Corrected monthly numbers were obtained with the help of the visibility function. The level of polar activity larger than 1 above the monthly running mean was calculated, and the relation between the polar faculae and sunspot cycle was studied. We confirmed earlier results (Makarov and Makarova, 1987) that the monthly number of polar faculae, NPF _m (t) correlates with the monthly sunspot area A _m (Sp)(t + T) with a time shift T 6 yr. The new polar faculae cycle began in the middle of 1991. Peculiarities of the first part of sunspot cycle 23 are discussed.Guest scientist with the University of Arizona and Zetetic Institute. Tucson, Arizona 85719, U.S.A.     

The oscillatory behaviour of solar faculae

The oscillatory behaviour of some faculae has been observed. In some cases power values in the faculae are larger than in the photosphere, but in other faculae power minima are found.     

Structure and physics of solar faculae

The methods used and the results obtained in the measurement of the distances between the centers of chromospheric granules are described. A coincidence of these structures at two different altitudes was observed. Observations made in the K2v, or in the K3 and CN lines permit the comparison of two different altitudes: the upper and the lower chromosphere. These results include flocculi on the edge of the supergranules as well as plages. Two main results are obtained: (l)the most likely distance between two neighboring granules is, at the minimum of the solar cycle, of about 2. 60 for K3 and 2.45 for CN, and (2) this distance is decreasing with growing solar activity.     

Magnetically non-split lines in faculae

Profile changes of five magnetically non-split lines going from the photosphere to faculae are investigated. The observations show that the profiles normalized to the continuum differ from those of the undisturbed photosphere only in the core. The outer parts of the profiles remain unchanged. Calculations using two recent facular models do not represent these observed profile changes. It is shown that a temperature increase in outer layers h 250 km does explain the observations. The problem of photospheric magnetograph calibration for facula magnetic field measurements is discussed.     

A possible mechanism for the pulsar radio emission

The possibility of radio emission is considered within a model which produces the beam-plasma system near the pulsar. A longitudinal instability develops near the light cylinder for a particular choice of parameters adopted in the paper. The excited wave strongly oscillates the beam particles perpendicular to its average velocity on one hand, and forms bunches of them on the other hand. Consequently, coherent radiation is expected. The frequency of the emission falls within the radio band, but the intensity turns out to be too low to explain observations. An appreciable enhancement of the beam number density over the Goldreich-Julian value (n _bB/2ec) is needed if the mechanism discussed in the present paper is responsible for the pulsar radio emission.     

A possible detection mechanism for pre-low-mass X-ray binaries

This work presents a possible detection mechanism for close, detached, neutron star–red dwarf binaries, which are expected to be the evolutionary precursors of low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). Although this pre-low-mass X-ray binary (pre-LMXB) phase of evolution is predicted theoretically, as yet no such systems have been identified observationally. The calculations presented here suggest that the X-ray luminosity of neutron star wind accretion in a pre-LMXB system can be expected to exceed the intrinsic X-ray luminosity of the red dwarf secondary star. Furthermore, the temperature of the radiation emitted from the neutron star wind accretion process is expected, within the confines of a reasonable set of conditions, to lie within the detection range of X-ray satellites. Sources with X-ray luminosities greater than that expected for a red dwarf star, but the positions of which coincide with that of a red dwarf star, are then candidate pre-LMXB systems. These candidate systems should be surveyed for the radial velocity shifts that would occur as a result of the orbital motion of a red dwarf star within a close binary system containing a high-mass compact object.     

A possible acceleration mechanism for a solar surge

We examine a non-linear mechanism for a solar surge in which plasma regions of high electrical conductivity and macroscopic dimension can be rapidly accelerated without diffusion of magnetic field. The mechanism is suggested by Rust's observations, which show that surges occur near sunspots in regions of reversed magnetic polarity. For the purposes of numerical calculation, we replace the magnetic field near a polarity reversal in a sunspot by magnetic fields of current loops. The relaxation of the magnetic field generated by two antiparallel coaxial current loops in an incompressible plasma is traced by computer. The results suggest that plasma in the form of a vortex ring can be expelled at the Alfvén velocity from active solar regions.     

The influence of faculae on sunspot heat blocking

We study the influence of faculae on sunspot heat blockage using a thermal model based on eddy heat diffusion through the convection zone. The facula is represented as a localized area of excess emission surrounding the sunspot, which is represented as a thermal plug. Our computations using a range of reasonable combinations of spot and facular depths show no significant influence of the facula on the long storage times of heat blocked by sunspots. However, the local cooling of surface layers produced by excess facular emission in this model propagates globally within the convection zone in a similar way to the heating produced by a spot. The net effect of spots and faculae on L over time scales longer than an active region lifetime should thus be determined by the global sum of sunspot flux deficits and facular excesses.     

Structure and physics of solar faculae

Taking into account the effect of roughness (or local departures from sphericity) of the emitting layers in the chromosphere-corona transition zone (CCT) allows one to determine the optical depths of layers responsible for resolved structures in Cii, Ciii, Oiv, and Ovi lines. The result, at the top of the irregularities, is of the order of respectively ₁ 3.5,2.0, 1.6,0.5, and for the bottom of these irregularities, ₂ = 0.7, 0.4, 0.3, 0.25. The characteristic angle of these irregularities is, respectively, of the order of 35 °, 33 °, 35 °, and 41 °. For unresolved structures of Civ and Ovi (already analyzed in the spherical symmetry hypothesis in Paper III), one finds ₁ 0.6; 0.9 and ₂ 0.12; 0.2 in the case of quiet areas; in the case of active areas, the range is broader for Civ and Ovi, from 1.0 to 1.7 for ₁ and from 0.2 to 0.9 for ₂. The values obtained from Ovi are in reasonable agreement with each other for resolved and unresolved structures. And the obtained values of ₁ and ₂ correspond not too badly with the determinations made in Paper III, by methods not exceedingly influenced by the spherical symmetry hypothesis.