Thomas LepeltierL’univers livresque

L’univers livresque de Thomas Lepeltier

Essayiste, travaillant sur des questions politiques, scientifiques et éthiques

Articles d'astrophysique de Thomas Lepeltier et al.


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1. "Stability criteria for massive current sheets in two-dimensional potential magnetic fields.", Astrophysical Journal, 432, 1994, pp. 793-805

Résumé : We investigate the linear stability of a simple model describing a solar prominence as a perfectly conducting vertical massive current sheet located in the "coronal half-space" {z>0} and supported against gravity by an x-invariant potential magnetic field. Assuming that the region outside the sheet contains a low-beta plasma having an infinite conductivity and that the field lines are firmly tied to the "photospheric plane" {z=0}: (i) We show that the model is stable with respect to any perturbation which do not depend on x. (ii) We derive necessary and sufficient conditions for three-dimensional stability to hold. As expected a priori, our criteria are much less severe than those Anzer (1969) obtained under the assumption that the sheet is embedded in a vacuum. They allow in particular -- contrary to Anzer's -- the stability of a sheet of low mass suspended in a region where the lines of the background field would have their concavity directed upwards, were they unperturbed by the heavy plasma.

3. "Computation of the magnetic field around a quiescent prominence from observational data.", Astronomy and Astrophysics, 293, 1995, pp. 906-912.

Résumé : A prominence is often modelized by a vertical infinitely thin massive  current sheet Σ embedded in the coronal half-space {z>0}, and supported against the uniform gravitational field -gz by an x-invariant magnetic field which is potential outside Σ. In the framework of this simple model, we reconsider the problem of the determination of the magnetic field from the values of its normal component on both Σ and the photospheric plane {z=0}, the values of these quantities being assumed to be extracted from actual observational data. It is shown that there is in general no regular field satisfying these boundary conditions. A sensible "regularization" procedure can however be applied to the problem, which allows to determine a field in a unique way. Conditions on the data for this field being actually able to support a prominence are established, and an explicit example is computed.

4. "Stability of an axisymmetric massive current sheet supported by a potential magnetic field.", Astronomy and Astrophysics, 306, 1996, pp. 645-665.

Résumé : The ideal linear stability of a class of axisymmetric magnetostatic equilibria is investigated by using the classical energy principle of Bernstein et al. (1958). The system under consideration is constituted of an infinitely thin equatorial disk of cold dense matter and of a corona filled up with a massless plasma. The disk is supported against the radial gravity of a central object by a magnetic field which is potential in the corona and has its footpoints firmly anchored in the rigid boundary of that region (line-tying). Such a configuration is proven to be always stable with respect to axisymmetric perturbations, but to be stable against arbitrary ones if and only if two criteria (in which stabilization by line-tying appears explicitly) are satisfied. These criteria are appleid to several particular equilibria (constructed by a general superposition method), which may be considered as crude models useful to understand some of the mechanisms at work in solar prominences and in accretion disks around compact objects. Stable configuration are shown to exist in each of the cases which have been worked out.

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