A qualitative discussion on the possibility of gravitational instabilities at the origin of explosions in magnetospheres

This paper discusses the possibility of using the Chandrasekhar and Fermi (1953) model of gravitational instabilities in superconductive infinite cylinders subjected to magnetic fields, to explain explosions arising from plasma cumulations in neutral regions at certain magnetospheres, and solar explosions in particular. The cylinder (or sausage) might result from neutral sheet collapse when critical conditions are attained. The cylinder is unstable, from the virial theorem. A transverse perturbation of amplitudea and wavelength (equivalent to the Alfvén wavelength) might break the cylinder up into gravitationally unstable pieces for whicha ²constant. The overall event might eventually be idealized as a string of explosive spots.