Related papers: A Contemporary View of Coronal Heating
We examine four candidate mechanisms that could explain the high surface temperatures of magnetars. (1) Heat flux from the liquid core heated by ambipolar diffusion. It could sustain the observed surface luminosity $L_s\approx 10^{35}$…
There is currently no explanation of why the corona has the temperature and density it has. We present a model which explains how the dynamics of magnetic reconnection regulates the conditions in the corona. A bifurcation in magnetic…
The Sun is a magnetically active star and is the source of the solar wind, electromagnetic radiation and energetic particles which affect the heliosphere and the Earths atmosphere. The magnetic field of the Sun is responsible for most of…
The outer solar atmosphere, the corona, contains plasma at temperatures of more than a million K, more than 100 times hotter that solar surface. How this gas is heated is a fundamental question tightly interwoven with the structure of the…
Coronal heating has puzzled solar physicists for decades. The question of why the Sun's upper atmosphere is significantly hotter than its lower atmosphere remains a key mystery. It is commonly believed that the source of coronal heating…
The heating of the plasma in the solar atmosphere is discussed within both frameworks of fluid and kinetic drift wave theory. We show that the basic ingredient necessary for the heating is the presence of density gradients in the direction…
The coronal heating problem is one of the most critical challenges in solar physics. Recent observations have revealed that small-scale swirls are ubiquitous in the photosphere and chromosphere, suggesting that they may play a significant…
The coronal magnetic field is the prime driver behind many as-yet unsolved mysteries: solar eruptions, coronal heating, and the solar wind, to name a few. It is, however, still poorly observed and understood. We highlight key questions…
Even in the absence of resolved flares, the corona is heated to several million degrees. However, despite its importance for the structure, dynamics, and evolution of the solar atmosphere, the origin of this heating remains poorly…
The solar corona is much hotter than the photosphere and chromosphere, but the physical mechanism responsible for heating the coronal plasma remains unidentified yet. The thermal microwave emission, which is produced in strong magnetic…
We investigate the spatial and temporal evolution of the heating of the corona of a cool star such as our Sun in a three-dimensional magneto-hydrodynamic (3D MHD) model. We solve the 3D MHD problem numerically in a box representing part of…
The heating of the solar corona and the puzzle of the slender high reaching magnetic loops seen in observations from the Transition Region And Coronal Explorer(TRACE) has been investigated through 3D numerical simulations, and found to be…
We present an overview of the physical mechanisms responsible for the coronal polarization at different wavelength regimes. We also review different techniques using coronal polarization to determine various quantities necessary for…
Data obtained in the framework of the INTERBALL-Tail Probe (1995-2000) and RHESSI (from 2002 to the present) projects have revealed variations in the X-ray intensity of the solar corona in the photon energy range of 2-15 keV during the…
Determining the mechanisms responsible for the heating of the coronal plasma and maintaining and accelerating the solar wind are long standing goals in solar physics. There is a clear need to constrain the energy, mass and momentum flux…
The heating of coronal loops is investigated to understand the observational consequences in terms of the thermodynamics and radiative losses from the Sun as well as the magnetized coronae of stars with an outer convective envelope. The…
Parker (1983) suggested a mechanism for the formation of current sheets (CSs) in the solar atmosphere. His main idea was that the tangling of coronal magnetic field lines by photospheric random flows facilitates the continuous formation of…
All but the most massive main-sequence stars are expected to have a rarefied and hot (million-Kelvin) corona like the Sun. How such a hot corona is formed and supported has not been completely understood yet, even in the case of the Sun.…
The solar corona, anomalously hot outer atmosphere of the Sun, is traditionally described by magnetohydrodynamic, fluid-like approach. Here we review some recent developments when, instead, a full kinetic description is used. It is shown…
In this paper we advocate for the idea that two seemingly unrelated mysteries with almost 90 year history -- the nature of dark matter and the million-degree solar corona -- may be but two sides of the same coin -- the axions of dark matter…