Bibcode
DOI
Moreno-Insertis, F.; Emonet, T.
Bibliographical reference
Astrophysical Journal Letters v.472, p.L53
Advertised on:
11
1996
Citations
131
Refereed citations
114
Description
First results from a two-dimensional numerical study of the buoyant rise
of twisted magnetic flux tubes in the solar convection zone are
presented. We show in detail the process by which the transverse
component of the field can suppress the splitting of the rising tube
into two vortex filaments. For the suppression to be effective, the
pitch angle of the twisted field lines has to be above a threshold given
by the condition that the magnetic equivalent of the Weber number (see
§ 2.2) be below 1. The shape obtained for the tube and wake is
strongly reminiscent of laboratory experiments with air bubbles rising
in liquids. The magnetized region outside an equipartition boundary is
peeled away from the tube: two sidelobes are formed, which lag behind
the tube and contain only a fraction of the initial magnetic flux. This
is similar to the formation of a skirt in the fluid dynamical case. The
velocities of rise predicted by the thin flux tube approximation are
compared with those obtained here.