A model of solar magnetic flux rope eruption initiated primarily by magnetic reconnection

Abstract

ABSTRACT There is a heated debate regarding the specific roles played by ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) instability and magnetic reconnection in triggering solar eruptions. In the context of a pre-existing magnetic flux rope (MFR) before an eruption, it is widely believed that an ideal MHD instability, in particular, the torus instability, is responsible for triggering and driving the eruption, while reconnection, as invoked in the wake of the erupting MFR, plays a secondary role. Here, we present a new numerical MHD model in which the eruption of a pre-existing MFR is primarily triggered and driven by reconnection. In this model, a stable MFR embedded in a strapping field is set as the initial condition. A surface converging flow is then applied at the lower boundary, pushing magnetic flux towards the main polarity inversion line. It drives a quasi-static evolution of the system, during which a current layer is built up below the MFR with decreasing thickness. Once reconnection starts in the current sheet, the eruption commences, which indicates that the reconnection plays a determining role in triggering the eruption. By further analysing the works done by the magnetic flux of the pre-existing MFR and the newly reconnected flux during the acceleration stage of the eruption, we find that the latter plays a major role in driving the eruption. Such a model may explain observed eruptions in which the pre-eruption MFR has not reached the conditions for ideal instability.