Doubly Helical Coronal Ejections from Dynamos and their Role in Sustaining the Solar Cycle.pdf

a r X i v : a s t r o - p h / 0 2 1 2 0 1 0 v 1 1 D e c 2 0 0 2 Doubly Helical Coronal Ejections from Dynamos and their Role in Sustaining the Solar Cycle Eric G. Blackman1 Axel Brandenburg2 1. Department of Physics Astronomy, and Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester, Rochester NY 14627 2. Nordita, Blegdamsvej 17, DK-2100 Copenhagen ?, Denmark ABSTRACT Two questions about the solar magnetic field might be answered together once their connection is identified. The first is important for large scale dynamo theory: what prevents the magnetic backreaction forces from shutting down the dynamo cycle? The second question is: what determines the handedness of twist and writhe in magnetized coronal ejecta? Magnetic helicity conservation is important for answering both questions. Conservation implies that dynamo generation of large scale writhed structures is accompanied by the oppositely signed twist along these structures. The latter is associated with the backreaction force. We suggest that coronal mass ejections (CMEs) simultaneously liberate small scale twist and large scale writhe of opposite sign, helping to prevent the cycle from quenching and enabling a net magnetic flux change in each hemisphere. Observations and helicity spectrum measurements from a numerical simulation of a rising flux ribbon in the presence of rotation support this idea. We show a new pictorial of dynamo flux generation that includes the backreaction and magnetic helicity conservation by characterizing the field as a 2-D ribbon rather than a 1-D line. Subject Headings: MHD–Sun: activity–Sun: magnetic fields MHD– turbulence; stars–magnetic fields; galaxies–magnetic fields; methods–numerical 1. Introduction The helical magnetic dynamo is the basis for a promising class of mechanisms to ex- plain large scale magnetic fields observed in stars and galaxies (Parker 1974; Moffatt 1978; Krause Ra?dler 1980; Parker 1993). The basic “α ? ?” dynamo is the specific version most re