[3.01] Connectivity and current sheets in general coronal magnetic fields through constrained variational methods

AAS 200th meeting, Albuquerque, NM, June 2002
Session 3. Solar Magnetic Fields
Display, Monday, June 3, 2002, 9:20am-6:30pm, SW Exhibit Hall

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[3.01] Connectivity and current sheets in general coronal magnetic fields through constrained variational methods

D. Longcope (Montana State University)

A scheme is presented for mapping the connectivity of a potential magnetic field arising from an arbitrary distribution of isolated sources. The field lines interconnecting the sources are classified into Nd domains, defining the field's connectivity. The number of domains is shown to depend on the number of sources and on the numbers of null and separators according to a simple relation. A class of non-potential equilibria are then generated by minimizing magnetic energy subject to constraints on the flux of each domain. The resulting equilibria are current-free within each domain, and contain singular currents along each of the field's separators. The general scheme is applied to observed magnetic configurations.

This work was supported in part by AFOSR grant F49620-00-1-0128

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