Force-free magnetic eld in a cylindrical ux rope

without a constant alpha

E. Romashets
a,
*
, M. Vandas
b
a
Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere, and Radio Wave Propagation of Academy of Sciences, Troitsk, Moscow Region 142190, Russia
b
Astronomical Institute, Academy of Sciences, Boc n II 1401, 141 31 Praha 4, Czech Republic
Received 19 October 2003; accepted 8 July 2005
Abstract
It is generally assumed that magnetic elds inside interplanetary magnetic clouds and ux ropes in the solar photosphere are
force-free. In order to model such elds, the solution of rot B = aB is commonly used where a = const. But comparisons of this solu-
tions with observations show signicant dierence. To treat this problem,we examine the solutions with a a
0
=1 r=r
0

3=2
.
2005 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Magnetic clouds; Cylindrical ux rope; Force-free magnetic elds; Solar photosphere; Interplanetary magnetic eld; Coronal mass
ejections
1. Introduction
A force-free magnetic eld distribution inside a cylin-
der has been obtained by Lundquist (1950). A general
formula for arbitrary orthogonal coordinate system
was found by Chandrasekhar and Kendall (1957). A
force-free conguration inside a cylinder with a tear
drop cross section was found by Romashets (1992). In
Osherovich et al. (1993) and Shimazu and Vandas
(2002), the time dependent expanding solutions were
described. There are many indications that eld inside
most of ux ropes is force-free. On the other hand a
few attempts to t them by not force-free distributions
have been made, too (Cargill et al., 2000; Mulligan
and Russell, 2001). The problem is that Lundquist
(1950) solution which is commonly used for interplane-
tary magnetic clouds interpretations (Burlaga, 1988)
sometimes cannot t observations with enough good
level of similarity between theoretical and observed
proles of all components as it was shown by Russell
and Mulligan (2003). So far only a few solutions with
not constant alpha have been published (Marubashi,
1986; Cargill et al., 1996; Romashets and Vandas,
2002), but all of them can be used only at some intervals
of r only, say from 0 to R
0
; from R
0
to R
1
; or from R
1
to
innity. Some of them gives innite values of eld mag-
nitude or current density at r = 0 or at r = 1, another in
both these points. The solution used by Marubashi
(1986) (see below, Eq. (18)) gives a = 0 on the ux rope
axis, r = 0, which means there are no currents in the
center of the ux rope. We present here, in this paper,
a solution of the equation
rot B aB 1
with the following conditions: a = a
0
at r = 0 and a !0
for r !1, and a is limited for any r; a
0
is an arbitrary
constant.
2. Calculation
In order to solve Eq. (1) in cylindrical coordinates we
assume that the magnetic eld components B
r
, B
u
, and
B
Z
are functions of r only. Under this assumption, com-
ponents of the Eq. (1) are:
0273-1177/$30 2005 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.asr.2005.07.067
*
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: romash@izmiran.rssi.ru (E. Romashets).
www.elsevier.com/locate/asr
Advances in Space Research 36 (2005) 22682272
B
r
0; 2

dB
Z
dr
aB
u
; 3
1
r
d
dr
rB
u
aB
Z
. 4
Assuming that a is also a function of r only and combin-
ing Eqs. (3) and (4), we get an equation for B
Z
,
d
2
B
Z
dr
2

1
r
a
d
dr
1
a
_ _ _ _
dB
Z
dr
a
2
B
Z
0. 5
At rst, we shall nd B
Z
from Eq. (5) and then B
u
from
Eq. (3).
Let us consider
a
a
0
1
r
r
0
_ _
3=2
; 6
where a
0
= const. and r
0
= const. Introducing a new
variable x and a new function y(x) by x = r/r
0
and
B
Z
(r) = B
0
y(x), we have
1
r
a
d
dr
1
a
_ _

1
r
0
1
x

3
2
1
1 x
_ _
;
dB
Z
dr

B
0
y
0
r
0
;
d
2
B
Z
dr
2

B
0
y
00
r
2
0
. 7
Substituting relationships (7) into Eq. (5), we have for
y(x):
y
00

1
x

3
2
1
1 x
_ _
y
0

e
2
1 x
3
y 0; 8
where e = a
0
r
0
. Eq. (8) can be solved by introduction of
a new variable v by
v
x
1 x
; 9
then
dy
dx

1
1 x
2
dy
dv
;
d
2
y
dx
2

1
1 x
4
d
2
y
dv
2

2
1 x
3
dy
dv
. 10
We have the following equation for y(v):
v1 vy
00
1
v
2
_ _
y
0
ve
2
y 0. 11
One of solutions of Eq. (11) can be presented as a
sum
y

1
n0
a
n
v
n
. 12
A recurrent expression for a
n
is obtained by equating
terms with v
n
in Eq. (11):
a
1
0; a
n
n 1n 3=2a
n1
e
2
a
n2
=n
2
. 13
We set a
0
= 1 in order to have B
Z
(0) = B
0
on the ux
rope axis. There are a few rst coecients from Eq.
(13) listed:
a
2

e
2
4
; a
3

e
2
12
; a
4

e
2
128
2e
2
5; . . . 14
The sum (12) is convergent for all v 6 1 and therefore
for any r because of relationship (9).
Once B
Z
is found,
B
Z
B
0

1
n0
a
n
r
r
0
r
_ _
n
; 15
we can calculate B
u
directly from Eq. (3):
B
u

B
0
a
0
r
0

r
0
r
0
r
_

1
n1
na
n
r
r
0
r
_ _
n1
. 16
As it can be seen from Eq. (16), B
u
is always equal to
zero at the ux rope axis and at innity, for all e. Proles
of magnetic eld components of our solutions in a ux
rope are shown in Fig. 1(a).
The value of B
Z
at innity is dened by y(v = 1). If
lim
r!1
B
z
= 0 is needed, we should satisfy also
Se

1
n0
a
n
e 0. 17
This can be done by selection of e in Eq. (17). Fig. 1(b)
shows the dependence of S(e) on e; S(e) has the rst root
at e = e
0
2.065.
Fig. 1. (a) Magnetic eld components B
u
, B
Z
, and the magnitude B of the new solution for e = 3. (b) Dependence of S(e) = B
Z
(1)/B
0
on the
parameter e.
E. Romashets, M. Vandas / Advances in Space Research 36 (2005) 22682272 2269
If an arbitrary e is chosen, then B
Z
remains limited at
innity, but it is not zero in general, while B
u
!0 and
a !0; so the magnetic eld (15) and (16) tends to a uni-
form magnetic eld directed along Z for large distances
from the ux rope axis.
Fig. 2 shows contours of B
u
and B
Z
as functions of e
and r. Fig. 2(b) demonstrates that for low e (e < e
0
) there
is no root of B
Z
, B
Z
does not change its sign for all r.
For e slightly above e
0
there is one root, which shifts to-
wards smaller r when e increases. For larger es addi-
tional roots appear. The contours with B
Z
= 0 are
labelled by 0 and the position of e
0
is marked by the
white line in Fig. 2(b).
The magnetic eld magnitude prole of the present
solution in comparison with other solutions of Eq.
(1) presented in literature for a cylindrical ux rope
is shown in Fig. 3(a). The magnitude is scaled by the
(maximum) magnitude B
c
at the ux rope axis for a
corresponding solution. Fig. 3(b) displays spatial pro-
les of the pitch angle d, the angle between the mag-
netic eld vector B and the Z axis. Our solution with
e = 2.5 is plotted by the thick solid line. The second
free parameter, r
0
, was chosen in such a way, that
the magnitude dropped by B
c
/4 at r = 1 (in arbitrary
units). The thin dashed line shows the solution by
Marubashi (1986):
B
r
0; B
u
B
0
r
r
0
_ _
2
1
r
r
0
_ _
4
_ _

3
4
;
B
Z
B
0
1
r
r
0
_ _
4
_ _

3
4
18
with alpha
ar
3
r
r
r
0
_ _
2
1
r
r
0
_ _
4
_ _
1
; 19
r
0
is a free parameter.
The thin dash-dotted line shows the prole in a uni-
form-twist ux rope used by Farrugia et al. (1999) (they
also refer to it as a Gold-Hoyle tube)
Fig. 2. Dependence of: (a) B
u
and (b) B
Z
on the parameter e and the distance r.
Fig. 3. Spatial proles of: (a) the magnetic eld magnitude B and (b) the magnetic eld vector pitch angle d in a cylindrical ux rope for various
force-free solutions. Detailed explanation is in the text.
2270 E. Romashets, M. Vandas / Advances in Space Research 36 (2005) 22682272
B
r
0; B
u

B
0
/r
1 /
2
r
2
; B
Z

B
0
1 /
2
r
2
; 20
where / is the twist per unit length; alpha is
ar
2/
1 /
2
r
2
. 21
The dotted line shows the prole used by Cargill et al.
(1996) in their 2.5-D MHD simulations
B
r
0; B
u
B
0
r
r
0
; B
Z
B
0

4 2
r
r
0
_ _
2

; 22
with
ar
2
r
0
4 2
r
r
0
_ _
2
_ _

1
2
; 23
where r
0
is the ux rope radius.
The Lundquist (1950) solution used by Burlaga (1988)
B
r
0; B
u
B
0
J
1
ar; B
Z
B
0
J
0
ar 24
with a = const. is plotted by the thin solid line. J
0
and J
1
are the Bessel functions.
The solutions (18)(24) contain one free parameter
(not counting B
0
) which was determined by a similar
way as it has been described for the plot of our solution.
So the proles of these solutions in Fig. 3 are fully deter-
mined and cannot be modied. Contrary, our solution
(16) and (15) has an additional free parameter e. Small
e gives the steepest prole of the magnetic eld magni-
tude (as e = 2.5 in Fig. 3(a)) from the treated solutions,
while the solution (18) has the attest prole. If we
increased e, then at e 5 the proles of B and d would
nearly coincide with the uniform twist tube (but it holds
only for this displayed inner part of the ux rope, not for
external parts), and for large e our solution tends to the
Lundquist solution (with a
0
xed and e !1, we have
a !a
0
). B
Z
does not change its sign in the solutions
(18)(22); in the new solution it holds only for e 6 e
0
.
The solutions (18) and (20) are special cases of a more
general solution. If we assume that a, B
u
, and B
Z
have
the following dependences on r
a
r
r
0
r
r
0
_ _
-
1
r
r
0
_ _
b
_ _
1
; 25
B
u
B
0
r
r
0
_ _
j
1
r
r
0
_ _
b
_ _
c
; B
Z
B
0
1
r
r
0
_ _
b
_ _
c
;
26
then from Eq. (1) the relationships for r, -, b, c, and j
are:
j 1 r cb; b 1 - j; - j 1. 27
In fact, setting - in Eq. (25) one can nd the rest of
parameters from Eq. (27):
j - 1; r - 2; b 2- 2; c
- 2
2- 2
.
28
The Marubashi case (18) corresponds to - = 1. It is -
= 0 for the uniform-twist ux rope (20). Only in the latter
case of this family of solutions we have nite non-zero a
at the centre of the ux rope. Larger -give a very at pro-
le, the case with - = 3 is shown by the thick dashed line.
Romashets and Vandas (2002) have found another
family of solutions of Eq. (1), namely for
a a
0
a
0
r
m
; 29
which reads
B
r
0; B
u
B
0
a
0
r
m
2
J m2
2m2
a
0
r
m1
m 1
_ _
;
B
Z
B
0
a
0
r
m
2
J m
2m2
a
0
r
m1
m 1
_ _
. 30
The components are limited for m > 1, the Lundquist
solution corresponds to m = 0. For larger m the prole
is at, the case with m = 2.5 is shown by the thick
dash-dotted line. Negative ms give sharp proles (see
the thick dashed-double dotted line for m = 0.6), but
the current diverges at the axis. This holds also for neg-
ative - in the solution (28), which yields similar proles.
The proles of the pitch angle (Fig. 3(b)) show qual-
itatively dierent shapes among models. Display of mea-
surements in observed interplanetary ux ropes in a way
similar to Fig. 3 could help to distinguish which model is
more relevant.
3. Conclusions
The force-free magnetic eld distribution in cylindri-
cal geometry is found for the case a (1 + r/r
0
)
3/2
. The
solution obtained gives nite values of magnetic eld
magnitude and current density in the entire interval of
r 2 0, 1 and it can be used for modelling of interplan-
etary magnetic clouds and ux ropes in the solar
photosphere.
Acknowledgements
The work is supported by EU/INTAS/ESA Grant
99-00727, EU/INTAS Grant 03-51-6206, CRDF Grant
TGP-944, AVC

R Projects S1003006 and 1QS300120-

506, and by GAC

R Grant 205/03/0953.
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