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      Lagrangian relaxation schemes for calculating force-free magnetic fields, and their limitations

      Pontin, D.I.; Hornig, G.; Wilmot-Smith, A.L.; Craig, Ian J.D.
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      Largrangian.pdf
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      DOI
       10.1088/0004-637X/700/2/1449
      Link
       iopscience.iop.org
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      Pontin, D.I., Hornig, G., Wilmot-Smith, A.L. & Craig, I.J.D. (2009). Lagrangian relaxation schemes for calculating force-free magnetic fields, and their limitations. The Astrophysical Journal, 700, 1449-1455.
      Permanent Research Commons link: https://hdl.handle.net/10289/5214
      Abstract
      Force-free magnetic fields are important in many astrophysical settings. Determining the properties of such force-free fields—especially smoothness and stability properties—is crucial to understanding many key phenomena in astrophysical plasmas, for example, energy release processes that heat the plasma and lead to dynamic or explosive events. In the present work we discuss a serious limitation on the computation of force-free fields, within the context of a Lagrangian relaxation scheme that conserves magnetic flux and ∇ • B identically. This issue has the potential to invalidate the results produced by numerical force-free field solvers even for cases in which they appear to converge (at fixed grid resolution) to an equilibrium magnetic field. Error estimates are introduced to assess the quality of the calculated equilibrium. We go on to present an algorithm, based on rewriting the curl operation via Stokes' theorem, for calculating the current which holds great promise for improving dramatically the accuracy of the Lagrangian relaxation procedure.
      Date
      2009
      Type
      Journal Article
      Publisher
      IOP Publishing Ltd
      Rights
      This article has been published in the journal: The Astrophysical Journal. © 2009 The American Astronomical Society.
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      • Computing and Mathematical Sciences Papers [1441]
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