The nonlinear evolution of magnetized solar filaments

Abstract

Thermal instability driven by optically thin radiation is believed to initiate the formation of plasma filaments in the solar corona. The fact that filaments are observed generally to separate regions of opposite, line-of-sight, magnetic polarity in the underlying photosphere suggests that filament formation requires the presence of a highly sheared, local magnetic field. Two-dimensional, nonlinear, magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the local genesis and growth of solar filaments in a force-free, sheared, magnetic field were performed, and the evolution of generic perturbations possessing broad spatial profiles was traced. It was found that simulations of the evolution of initial random-noise perturbations produce filamentary plasma structures that exhibit densities and temperatures characteristic of observed solar filaments. Furthermore, in each of these simulations, the filament axis lies at a finite angle with respect to the local magnetic field, consistent with solar observations.