Failed ejection and oscillations of a current-carrying filament balanced by gravity

TL;DR

This study combines analytical and numerical MHD modeling to analyze the destabilization, ejection, and oscillation cycles of gravity-supported solar filaments, revealing key dynamics and magnetic reconnection processes.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive MHD simulation of filament destabilization and oscillations supported by a gravity-balanced current model, extending prior analytical work.

Findings

Filaments exhibit ejection and fallback cycles with ~600 s period.

Maximum ejection velocities reach up to 80 km/s.

Current sheet formation and magnetic reconnection occur during ejections.

Abstract

In this study, we investigate the post-destabilization evolution of a filament in a gravity-balanced model. We adopt the filament model proposed by Solov'ev (2010), in which a dense filament is supported against gravity by the repulsive force between the filament current and its sub-photospheric image. We first performed an analytical investigation of this model. For the numerical study, we use a two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model that solves the MHD equations with the Lare2d numerical code. Results: In this filament model, analytical expressions are derived for the electric current density, plasma density, and their spatial distributions as functions of the model parameters. The total electric current and the filament weight are also calculated. For the numerical simulations, we constructed an equilibrium filament characterized by a magnetic field of $B_0$ = $10^{-3}$ T, mass density $\rho_0$ ~ 1.3 x $10^{-9}$ kg m$^{-3}$, and temperature T ~ 13000 K. The system was destabilized either by increasing the currents or by reducing the filament density, and its evolution was computed. In both destabilization regimes, the filament was ejected, then halted at a certain altitude, and subsequently fell back, repeating this cycle with a period of about 600 s. The maximum filament ejection velocity was approximately 80 and 40 km $s^{-1}$, respectively. Beneath the ejected filament a current sheet forms, where magnetic reconnection occurs. The maximum ejection altitudes were determined as functions of both the destabilizing currents and the degree of filament plasma dilution. Finally, we compared results of this MHD model with those of an ideal vacuum model and discussed all results.