Magnetic Reconnection as the Key Mechanism in Sunspot Rotation Leading to Solar Eruption

TL;DR

This study uses data-inspired MHD simulations to reveal that sunspot rotation leads to solar eruptions primarily through magnetic reconnection at a current sheet, challenging the traditional flux rope instability model.

Contribution

The paper introduces a new mechanism where magnetic reconnection, rather than flux rope instability, triggers solar eruptions during sunspot rotation.

Findings

Eruption triggered by fast reconnection at a current sheet.

No formation of a flux rope before eruption.

Identification of an intermediate slow-rise phase.

Abstract

The rotation of sunspots around their umbral center has long been considered as an important process in leading to solar eruptions, but the underlying mechanism remains unclear. A prevailing physical picture on how sunspot rotation leads to eruption is that, by twisting the coronal magnetic field lines from their footpoints, the rotation can build up a magnetic flux rope and drive it into some kinds of ideal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) instabilities which initiate eruptions. Here with a data-inspired MHD simulation we studied the rotation of a large sunspot in solar active region NOAA 12158 leading to a major eruption, and found that it is distinct from prevailing theories based on ideal instabilities of twisted flux rope. The simulation suggests that, through successive rotation of the sunspot, the coronal magnetic field is sheared with a central current sheet created progressively within the sheared arcade before the eruption, but without forming a flux rope. Then the eruption is instantly triggered once fast reconnection sets in at the current sheet, while a highly twisted flux rope is created during the eruption. Furthermore, the simulation reveals an intermediate evolution stage between the quasi-static energy-storage phase and the impulsive eruption-acceleration phase. This stage may correspond to the slow-rise phase in observation and it enhances building up of the current sheet.