Untwisting Jets Related to Magnetic Flux Cancellation

TL;DR

This study analyzes solar jets to understand how magnetic flux cancellation and twist unwinding drive jet eruptions, revealing the magnetic configurations and twist dynamics involved in the process.

Contribution

It provides detailed observations and magnetic field modeling linking flux cancellation to jet untwisting and eruption mechanisms, including twist quantification.

Findings

Jets are associated with magnetic flux cancellation.

The jet's rotation unwinds the pre-existing magnetic twist.

A null point configuration favors jet eruption.

Abstract

The rotational motion of solar jets is believed to be a signature of the untwisting process resulting from magnetic reconnection, which takes place between twisted closed magnetic loops (i.e., magnetic flux ropes) and open magnetic field lines. The identification of the pre-existing flux rope, and the relationship between the twist contained in the rope and the number of turns the jet experiences, are then vital in understanding the jet-triggering mechanism. In this paper, we will perform a detailed analysis of imaging, spectral and magnetic field observations of four homologous jets, among which the fourth one releases a twist angle of 2.6$\pi$. Non-linear force free field extrapolation of the photospheric vector magnetic field before the jet eruption presents a magnetic configuration with a null point between twisted and open fields - a configuration highly in favor of the eruption of solar jets. The fact that the jet rotates in the opposite sense of handness to the twist contained in the pre-eruption photospheric magnetic field, confirms the unwinding of the twist by the jet's rotational motion. Temporal relationship between jets' occurrence and the total negative flux at their source region, together with the enhanced magnetic submergence term of the photospheric Poynting flux, shows that these jets are highly associated with local magnetic flux cancellation.