Ballooning Instability: A Possible Mechanism for Impulsive Heating of Plasma Trapped in a Loop

Abstract:

Plasma confined in curved magnetic field are unstable when the plasma beta (= gas pressure / magnetic pressure) exceeds a critical value determined mainly by the loop geometry (~ loop thickness / curvature radius). In TOKAMAK (one type of fusion experiment device), sudden disruption of confined plasma are observed when plasma beta is high and is called high-beta disruption. The main cause of the disruption is ballooning instability (or localized interchange instability). This instability can happen also in the solar atmosphere when conditions are satisfied. Not only high gas pressure but also plasma flow along curved magnetic field triggers ballooning instability. The most probable location of the instability is around the loop top where the magnetic field is the weakest. Impulsive heating of confined plasma and particle acceleration can be expected by discharge process of the space charge which is created by drift motion of plasma particles perpendicular to the magnetic field. Associated with disruption, shock waves and turbulences will be generated due to sudden expansion of plasma. Recent high-resolution, high-cadence and multiple wavelength (visible-UV-EUV) observations by SDO show many of these events.