Photospheric flux cancellation and associated flux rope formation and eruption

TL;DR

This study investigates how flux cancellation at the polarity inversion line in an active region leads to flux rope formation and eruption, highlighting the magnetic evolution and partial coherence of the flux rope.

Contribution

It provides detailed analysis of flux cancellation's role in flux rope formation and quantifies the amount of flux involved, comparing it with previous models and observations.

Findings

Approximately 30-60% of active region flux may be in the flux rope.

Flux rope coherence is influenced by nonuniform cancellation along the inversion line.

Sigmoid structures reform within hours after eruption due to ongoing cancellation.

Abstract

We study an evolving bipolar active region that exhibits flux cancellation at the internal polarity inversion line, the formation of a soft X-ray sigmoid along the inversion line and a coronal mass ejection. The evolution of the photospheric magnetic field is described and used to estimate how much flux is reconnected into the flux rope. About one third of the active region flux cancels at the internal polarity inversion line in the 2.5~days leading up to the eruption. In this period, the coronal structure evolves from a weakly to a highly sheared arcade and then to a sigmoid that crosses the inversion line in the inverse direction. These properties suggest that a flux rope has formed prior to the eruption. The amount of cancellation implies that up to 60% of the active region flux could be in the body of the flux rope. We point out that only part of the cancellation contributes to the flux in the rope if the arcade is only weakly sheared, as in the first part of the evolution. This reduces the estimated flux in the rope to $\sim\!30%$ or less of the active region flux. We suggest that the remaining discrepancy between our estimate and the limiting value of $\sim\!10%$ of the active region flux, obtained previously by the flux rope insertion method, results from the incomplete coherence of the flux rope, due to nonuniform cancellation along the polarity inversion line. A hot linear feature is observed in the active region which rises as part of the eruption and then likely traces out field lines close to the axis of the flux rope. The flux cancellation and changing magnetic connections at one end of this feature suggest that the flux rope reaches coherence by reconnection shortly before and early in the impulsive phase of the associated flare. The sigmoid is destroyed in the eruption but reforms within a few hours after a moderate amount of further cancellation has occurred.