Skip to main content
OSTI.GOVU.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
 

Spontaneous decay of periodic magnetostatic equilibria

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1]
  1. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations
In order to understand the conditions which lead a highly magnetized, relativistic plasma to become unstable, and in such cases how the plasma evolves, we study a prototypical class of magnetostatic equilibria where the magnetic field satisfies ∇ x B = αB , where \alpha is spatially uniform, on a periodic domain. Using numerical solutions we show that generic examples of such equilibria are unstable to ideal modes (including incompressible ones) which are marked by exponential growth in the linear phase. We characterize the unstable mode, showing how it can be understood in terms of merging magnetic and current structures, and explicitly demonstrate its instability using the energy principle. Following the nonlinear evolution of these solutions, we find that they rapidly develop regions with relativistic velocities and electric fields of comparable magnitude to the magnetic field, liberating magnetic energy on dynamical timescales and eventually settling into a configuration with the largest allowable wavelength. Furthermore, these properties make such solutions a promising setting for exploring the mechanisms behind extreme cosmic sources of gamma rays.
Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515
OSTI ID:
1326977
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1213281
Report Number(s):
SLAC-PUB--16715
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 9 Vol. 115; ISSN 0031-9007; ISSN PRLTAO
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (42)

Equilibrium and stability of force-free magnetic field journal March 1974
A note on the stability of Beltrami fields for compressible fluid flows journal December 2014
Cosmic Ray Origins: An Introduction journal November 2014
Astrophysical magnetic fields and nonlinear dynamo theory journal October 2005
Possibility of an inverse cascade of magnetic helicity in magnetohydrodynamic turbulence journal April 1975
Magnetostatic equilibria and analogous Euler flows of arbitrarily complex topology. Part 2. Stability considerations journal May 1986
Chaotic streamlines in the ABC flows journal June 1986
Production of the large scale superluminal ejections of the microquasar GRS 1915+105 by violent magnetic reconnection journal September 2005
Coalescence instability of magnetic islands journal January 1977
On Force-Free Magnetic Fields. journal July 1957
The Stability of Force-Free Magnetic Fields. journal September 1958
Pulsar Electrodynamics journal August 1969
On the Problem of Magnetic Coronal Heating by Turbulent Relaxation journal November 1993
Reconnection in a Weakly Stochastic Field journal June 1999
On the Inverse Cascade of Magnetic Helicity journal March 2006
An Exceptional Very High Energy Gamma-Ray Flare of PKS 2155-304 journal July 2007
The Role of the Guide Field in Relativistic Pair Plasma Reconnection journal April 2008
Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations of Reconnection and Particle Acceleration: Three-Dimensional Effects journal June 2011
Numerical Simulations of Driven Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence journal December 2011
Magnetar Giant Flares—Flux rope Eruptions in Multipolar Magnetospheric Magnetic Fields journal September 2012
Physical Conditions in the Reconnection Layer in Pulsar Magnetospheres journal December 2013
Relativistic Reconnection: an Efficient Source of Non-Thermal Particles journal February 2014
Inverse Cascade of Nonhelical Magnetic Turbulence in a Relativistic Fluid journal October 2014
Electromagnetic extraction of energy from Kerr black holes journal July 1977
The soft gamma repeaters as very strongly magnetized neutron stars - I. Radiative mechanism for outbursts journal July 1995
An energy principle for hydromagnetic stability problems
  • Bernstein, I. B.; Frieman, E. A.; Kruskal, Martin David
  • Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A. Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Vol. 244, Issue 1236, p. 17-40 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.1958.0023
journal February 1958
Stability of Force-Free Magnetic Fields journal December 1962
Magnetohydrodynamics in the extreme relativistic limit journal March 1998
Understanding possible electromagnetic counterparts to loud gravitational wave events: Binary black hole effects on electromagnetic fields journal April 2010
Stability of exact force-free electrodynamic solutions and scattering from spacetime curvature journal July 2015
Theory of force-free electromagnetic fields. I. General theory journal August 1997
Emergence of helicity in rotating stratified turbulence journal March 2013
Nonhelical Inverse Transfer of a Decaying Turbulent Magnetic Field journal February 2015
Relaxation of Toroidal Plasma and Generation of Reverse Magnetic Fields journal November 1974
Three-dimensional self-organization of a magnetohydrodynamic plasma journal July 1985
Ideal magnetohydrodynamic theory of magnetic fusion systems journal July 1982
Relaxation and magnetic reconnection in plasmas journal July 1986
Magnetar giant flares and afterglows as relativistic magnetized explosions journal April 2006
UHECRs from magnetic reconnection in relativistic jets: UHECRs from magnetic reconnection in jets journal August 2010
Gamma-Ray Flares from the Crab Nebula journal January 2011
Discovery of Powerful Gamma-Ray Flares from the Crab Nebula journal January 2011
Solar Flares: Magnetohydrodynamic Processes journal January 2011

Cited By (10)

Magnetoluminescence book January 2017
Magnetoluminescence journal June 2017
The evolution of primordial magnetic fields since their generation journal September 2016
The imprint of pulsar parameters on the morphology of Pulsar Wind Nebulae journal July 2016
Black hole magnetosphere with small-scale flux tubes – II. Stability and dynamics journal June 2019
The imprint of pulsar parameters on the morphology of Pulsar Wind Nebulae text January 2016
On the Broadband Synchrotron Spectra of Pulsar Wind Nebulae journal February 2019
The evolution of primordial magnetic field since its generation text January 2015
On the broad-band synchrotron spectra of pulsar wind nebulae text January 2018
Black hole magnetosphere with small scale flux tubes--II. Stability and dynamics text January 2019

Similar Records

KINETIC SIMULATIONS OF THE LOWEST-ORDER UNSTABLE MODE OF RELATIVISTIC MAGNETOSTATIC EQUILIBRIA
Journal Article · Mon Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Astrophysical Journal · OSTI ID:22679632
Two-dimensional magnetostatic equilibria and their stability
Journal Article · Mon Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 1988 · Astrophys. J.; (United States) · OSTI ID:6726126
Topology of plasma equilibria and the current closure condition
Journal Article · Sun May 01 00:00:00 EDT 2005 · Physical Review. E, Statistical Physics, Plasmas, Fluids, and Related Interdisciplinary Topics · OSTI ID:20706293

Related Subjects

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS