Duckenfield, Timothy (2020) Multi-modal MHD oscillations in the solar corona, and their use in coronal seismology. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

The solar atmosphere is a dynamic, inhomogeneous environment which acts as a natural plasma laboratory for a keen community of observers and researchers at the forefront of modern physics. Colossal plasma non-uniformities on the Sun are seen to host a wide variety of magnetoacoustic oscillatory motions, which may be used as probes into the local plasma conditions using the theory of long wavelength, large scale magnetohydrodynamics (MHD): this process is known as coronal seismology. The focus of this thesis is to contribute to the detailed observation of these waves and their use in coronal seismology, particularly the usefulness of observing multiple harmonics and understanding of dispersion.

Fast kink-mode oscillations of coronal loops, observed as rapidly decaying transverse displacements, are a well-understood wave mode used for seismology. The simultaneous detection of multiple harmonics can provide more information, allowing one to match the observed dispersion with that predicted by theory. Extreme ultraviolet observations of a coronal loop hosting a standing kink oscillation are analysed using image processing and time series techniques. The presence of two simultaneous harmonics is revealed, a fundamental mode at a period of ∼ 8 minutes and its third harmonic at ∼ 2.6 minutes. The ratio of periods P1/3P3 was found to be ∼ 0.87, whose departure from unity indicates a non-uniform distribution of kink speed through the loop. For all locations, the ratio of damping time to period for the two harmonics were found to agree within error, validating the widely assumed 1d resonant absorption theory used to explain a kink oscillation’s rapid damping. This is the first time a measurement of the signal quality for a higher harmonic of a kink oscillation has been reported with spatially resolved data.

One exciting development in coronal seismology is the recent detection of decay-less oscillations, which are a different regime of fast-kink oscillations omnipresent in coronal loops. The first detection of a coronal loop exhibiting multi-modal decay-less oscillations is presented, in which both the loop’s fundamental mode (P1 = 10.3 +1.5 −1.7 minutes) and its second harmonic (P2 = 7.4 +1.1 −1.3 minutes) are detected. To make this detection possible, the observational data was passed through a novel motion magnification algorithm to accentuate transverse oscillations. An illustration of seismology using the ratio P1/2P2 ∼ 0.7 to estimate the density scale height is presented. The existence of multiple harmonics has implications for understanding the driving and damping mechanisms for decay-less oscillations, and adds credence to their interpretation as standing kink mode oscillations.

There is a myriad of MHD oscillation modes, and whilst fast-kink modes are observed as transverse displacements of the plasma non-uniformity, slow modes may be observed as intensity enhancements. Analysis of such propagating slow modes observed in a fan of coronal loops above a sunspot is performed. The instantaneous velocities and periods of these intensity enhancements are measured and compared in different temperature passbands and azimuthal angles. The waves seen in the 171˚A channel (∼ 0.6 MK) appeared slower than when observed co-spatially in the 193˚A (∼ 1.58 MK). This contradicts the expectation that the phase speed is approximately the local sound speed, which varies as the square root of the temperature. This discrepancy is resolved by attributing the difference in apparent velocity to different inclination angles, which are estimated to be 9° ± 3° from the vertical for the waves seen in 193 A, and 19° ± 4° when seen in 171 A. This provides some evidence supporting the theory that coronal loops are formed of several distinct, unresolved strands of different temperature.

From the theoretical point of view, the dispersion relation governing slow MHD modes in the presence of a wave-induced misbalance between the plasma heating and cooling mechanisms is developed. The thin flux tube approximation is used to account for finite-β effects, and thermal conduction is also included. The dispersion relation in the limits of weak non-adiabaticity and strong non-adiabaticity with finite-β is identified. It is found that the characteristic timescales of this imbalance (e.g. damping time) may be expressed in terms of the partial derivatives of the combined heating/cooling function with respect to constant gas pressure and constant magnetic pressure. Moreover, these characteristic timescales for the thermal misbalance coincide with typical MHD wave periods for a large range of densities and temperatures typical of the corona. Thus in the general case the dispersion on slow waves by the wave-induced thermal misbalance should not be neglected, and its inclusion may resolve some contradictions that have arisen when attributing the rapid damping of slow modes to thermal conduction or compressive viscosity alone.

Instability criteria for the slow mode and entropy (thermal) mode are expressed in terms of a parameterisation of the unknown coronal heating function, under this thin flux tube approximation. Finally, noting that observations of slow modes in the corona do not show over-stability, and that the thermal mode does not appear to be unstable in general (with the exception of coronal rain), a new way of constraining the coronal heating function is presented.

Item Type:	Thesis or Dissertation (PhD)
Subjects:	Q Science > QB Astronomy Q Science > QC Physics
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Helioseismology, Sun -- Corona, Magnetohydrodynamic waves
Official Date:	August 2020
Dates:	Date Event August 2020 UNSPECIFIED
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Physics
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Nakariakov, V. M. (Valery M.)
Format of File:	pdf
Extent:	xxiii, 216 leaves : illustrations (some colour)
Language:	eng

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