Tether-cutting and Overlying Magnetic Reconnections in an MHD Simulation of Prominence-cavity System

TL;DR

This paper uses MHD simulations to study magnetic reconnection processes in a prominence-cavity system, revealing how overlying reconnections and instabilities lead to eruptions.

Contribution

It presents a detailed simulation of prominence eruption phases, highlighting the roles of tether-cutting and overlying magnetic reconnections in the eruption mechanism.

Findings

Reconnection at high-Q apex regions initiates the eruption process.

Removal of overlying magnetic tension drives the slow rise of the flux rope.

Torus instability triggers explosive flare reconnection and rapid eruption.

Abstract

We investigate the magnetic reconnection in an MHD simulation of a coronal magnetic flux rope (MFR) confined by a helmet streamer, where a prominence-cavity system forms. This system includes a hot cavity surrounding a prominence with prominence horns and a central hot core above the prominence. The evolution of the system from quasi-equilibrium to eruption can be divided into four phases: quasi-static, slow rise, fast rise, and propagation phases. The emerged MFR initially stays quasi-static and magnetic reconnection occurs at the overlying high-Q (squashing factor) apex region, which gradually evolves into a hyperbolic flux tube (HFT). The decrease of the integrated magnetic tension force (above the location of the overlying reconnection) is due to the removal of overlying confinement by the enhanced overlying reconnection between the MFR and the overlying fields at the apex HFT, thus engines the slow rise of the MFR with a nearly constant velocity. Once the MFR reaches the regime of torus instability, another HFT immediately forms at the dip region under the MFR, followed by the explosive flare reconnection. The integrated resultant force (above the location of the flare reconnection) exponentially increases, which drives the exponential fast rise of the MFR. The system enters the propagation phase, once its apex reaches the height of about one solar radius above the photosphere. The simulation reproduces the main processes of one group of prominence eruptions especially those occurring on the quiet Sun.