The magnetic Rayleigh–Taylor instability in solar prominences

Abstract

The magnetic Rayleigh-Taylor instability is a fundamental instability of many astrophysical systems, and recent observations are consistent with this instability developing in solar prominences. Prominences are cool, dense clouds of plasma that form in the solar corona that display a wide range of dynamics of a multitude of spatial and temporal scales, and two different phenomena that have been discovered to occur in prominences can be understood as resulting from the Rayleigh-Taylor instability. The first is that of plumes that rise through quiescent prominences from low density bubbles that form below them. The second is that of a prominence eruption that fragments as the material falls back to the solar surface. To identify these events as the magnetic Rayleigh-Taylor instability, a wide range of theoretical work, both numerical and analytical has been performed, though alternative explanations do exist. For both of these sets of observations, determining that they are created by the magnetic Rayleigh-Taylor instability has meant that the linear instability conditions and nonlinear dynamics can be used to make estimates of the magnetic field strength. There are strong connections between these phenomena and those in a number of other astro, space and plasma systems, making these observations very important for our understanding of the role of the RayleighTaylor instability in magnetised systems.

Modeling the Effect of Mass-draining on Prominence Eruptions

“…We have discussed the role that mass plays in the global evolution and eruption of flux ropes, suggesting that it depends on four main parameters; the strength of the surface field generating the background potential field, how much mass is loaded into a flux rope, how much mass drains during its evolution, and when along a flux rope's equilibrium curve the mass drains. The effect of the local evolution of plasma within prominences is not discussed in this manuscript, i.e., the mass-draining that is studied here differs from the massloss due to the Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI) that has been studied extensively in both observations and simulations (e.g., Hillier et al 2012;Xia & Keppens 2016;Hillier 2018). In addition, Kaneko & Yokoyama (2018) pointed out that, in their case, the mass-loss from the prominence due to RTI was balanced by new condensations into the prominence.…”

Solar prominences: theory and models

“…2014). Further discussion of models of vertical flows in prominences, including a thorough review of prominence RT instability studies, can be found in Hillier (2018).…”

Magnetic Rayleigh–Taylor Instability in an Experiment Simulating a Solar Loop

“…The Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI) is an important instability in many astrophysical and laboratory systems, such as supernova explosions (Hachisu et al 1992;Hester et al 1996;Porth et al 2014), solar prominences (Berger et al 2010;Ryutova et al 2010;Terradas et al 2015;Hillier 2018), and inertial confinement fusion (Takabe et al 1985;Betti et al 1998). RTI occurs when a heavy fluid is initially on top of a light fluid.…”