Skip to main content
Log in

The structure of force-free magnetic fields

  • Published:
Solar Physics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Incontrovertible evidence is presented that the force-free magnetic fields exhibit strong stochastic behavior. Arnold's solution is given with the associated first integral of energy. A subset of the solution is shown to be non-ergodic whereas the full solution is shown to be ergodic. The first integral of energy is applied to the study of these fields to prove that the equilibrium points of such magnetic configurations are saddle points. Finally, the potential function of the first integral of energy is shown to be a member of the Helmholtz family of solutions. Numerical results corroborate the theoretical conclusions and demonstrate the robustness of the energy integral, which remains constant for arbitrarily long computing times.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Arnold, V. I.: 1965, Comptes Rend. Acad. Sci., Paris 261, 17.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bartle, R. G: 1976, The Elements of Real Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, New York, p. 379.

    Google Scholar 

  • Birkhoff, G.: 1966, Dynamical Systems, American Mathematical Society, Vol. 106.

  • Chandrasekhar, S.: 1956a, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 42, 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chandrasekhar, S.: 1956b, Astrophys. J. 126, 232.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chandrasekhar, C. and Kendall, P. C.: 1957, Astrophys. J. 126, 457.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chandrasekhar, S. and Woltjer, L.: 1958, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 44, 285.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chintsin, A. J.: 1964, Mathematische Grundlagen der Statistischen Mechanik, Bibliographisches Institut, Mannheim.

    Google Scholar 

  • Démoulin, P.: 1999, J. Atmospheric Solar-Terrest. Phys. 61, 101.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dombre, T., Frisch, U., Greene, J. M., Hénon, M., Mehr A., and Soward, A. M.: 1986, J. Fluid Mech. 167, 353. After submitting our paper we discovered this paper with results similar to Equation (33).

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferrar, W. L.: 1957, Algebra, Oxford University Press, Oxford, p. 148.

    Google Scholar 

  • Golub, L. and Pasachoff, J. M.: 1997, The Solar Corona, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, W. W.: 1935, Phys. Rev. 47, 139.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hénon, M.: 1966, Comptes Rend. Acad. Sci., Paris 262, 312.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jahnke, E. and Emde, F.: 1945, Tables of Functions, Dover Publications, New York, p. 168.

    Google Scholar 

  • Landau, L. D. and Lifshitz, E. M.: 1993, Fluid Mechanics, Pergamon Press, Oxford, p. 13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lüst, R. and Schlüter, A.: 1954, Z. Astrophys. 34, 263.

    Google Scholar 

  • Poletto, G., Vaiana, G. S., Zombeck, M. V., Krieger, A. S., and Timothy, A. F.: 1975, Solar Phys. 44, 83.

    Google Scholar 

  • Priest, E. R.: 1984, Solar Magnetohydrodynamics, D. Reidel Publ. Co., Dordrecht, Holland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, J. B.: 1986, Rev. Mod. Phys. 58, 741.

    Google Scholar 

  • Woltjer, L.: 1958, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 44, 489, 833.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zirker, J. B., Martin, S. F., Harvey, K., and Gaizauskas, V.: 1997, Solar Phys. 175, 27.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Evangelidis, E., Vaughan, L. & Botha, G. The structure of force-free magnetic fields. Solar Physics 193, 17–32 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005236824271

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005236824271

Keywords

Navigation