English

Three-dimensional analytical magnetohydrostatic equilibria of rigidly rotating magnetospheres in cylindrical geometry

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics 2009-11-30 v1 Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

Abstract

We present three-dimensional solutions of the magnetohydrostatic equations in the co-rotating frame of reference outside a magnetized rigidly rotating cylinder. We make no symmetry assumption for the magnetic field, but to be able to make analytical progress we neglect outflows and specify a particular form for the current density. The magnetohydrostatic equations can then be reduced to a single linear partial differential equation for a pseudo-potential UU, from which the magnetic field can be calculated by differentiation. The equation for UU can be solved by standard methods. The solutions can also be used to determine the plasma pressure, density and temperature as functions of all three spatial coordinates. Despite the obvious limitations of this approach, it can for example be used as a simple tool to create three-dimensional models for the closed field line regions of rotating magnetospheres without rotational symmetry.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0906.0913,
  title  = {Three-dimensional analytical magnetohydrostatic equilibria of rigidly rotating magnetospheres in cylindrical geometry},
  author = {Thomas Neukirch},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0906.0913},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

13 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication by Geophysical and Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics