Thursday, September 23, 2021

Coronal heating problem: a whiplash effect explains the high temperature in the corona of the Sun?

One of well-known open problems in physics is what heats the corona of the Sun to a temperature of over 1,000,000 kelvins while the visible surface of the Sun is only 6,000 K.


There are competing explanations:

1. Alfvén waves around magnetic lines of force;

2. magneto-acoustic waves;

3. magnetic reconnection theory.


Let us add a new hypothesis: the whiplash effect of a string which becomes thinner.

Magnetic field lines are in a constant movement inside the Sun. For example, in a prominence we see a magnetic field line rise up from the surface of the Sun and move farther into space.

A moving magnetic field line in plasma induces an electric current. Let us model the current as a very large point charge Q which moves inside the Sun.


                   space

        ----------------------------  surface of the Sun

                   ●  ---->
                  Q point charge


The movement of Q creates an electromagnetic wave. It is usually half a wave, not periodic.

Electromagnetic waves inside plasma obey the massive Klein-Gordon equation

        d²ψ / dt²  -  d²ψ / dx²  + m² ψ  = 0.

The velocity of the wave is slow in plasma. The effective mass m in the equation is large.

Plasma becomes thinner when we move out from the surface of the Sun, and farther into the corona. When the electromagnetic wave goes up, there is a whiplash effect. The effective mass m is much less up in the corona. It is like a wave traveling in a string which becomes a lot thinner.


                            wave ----->
            ===========--------------- . . . . . . .
            string


The amplitude of the wave grows at the thin end of the whip. This means that charged particles will move faster in the corona than inside the Sun. Collisions of fast electrons and protons then create a high temperature in the corona.

No comments:

Post a Comment