EAGER: A First Principles Test of the Current Sheet Heating Hypothesis for the Solar Corona

首席研究员（PI）将测试一个长期存在的假设，即太阳日冕加热发生在亚分辨率电流片中。PI指出，理论上的估计表明，日冕中这种电流片的厚度在100米或更少的量级，但没有确凿的证据表明这种电流片存在。由于当前观测技术的空间分辨率不足，无法直接观测到这些电流片。由于这些薄片还不能被检测到，PI断言，对它们存在的间接测试将是确定磁流体动力学（MHD）模型是否可以从第一性原理物理中产生这种现象，而不会以任何方式倾向于MHD模型在日冕中有当前的薄片解。PI将创建这样一个模型，并要求这样的解决方案“自然产生”，从固有的，非线性的传输和辐射物理模型。PI的模型将被设计为在太阳日冕条件下提供精确的、自一致的、加热的、辐射电流片的解，并包括辐射冷却速率和决定太阳日冕加热的各向异性输运系数的现实数学表达式。如果PI找到了他预期的电流片解，那么这将构成日冕中存在电流片的第一个理论证据，并将为电流片日冕加热假说提供支持。这样的解决方案将有助于我们对电流片中辐射产生和各向异性输运过程的基本理解，并允许更准确的多维MHD模拟，以增加我们对磁重联的理解，磁重联是一种在空间物理学、天体物理学和等离子体物理学中普遍存在的现象。磁重联也是高能空间天气事件中的一个关键现象。

The Principal Investigator (PI) will test a long-standing hypothesis that solar coronal heating occurs in sub-resolution current sheets. The PI notes that theoretical estimates suggest that the thickness of such current sheets in the solar corona would be on the order of 100 meters or less, but there is no firm evidence that such sheets exist. These current sheets cannot be observed directly due to the inadequate spatial resolution of current observing technology. Since these sheets cannot yet be detected, the PI asserts that an indirect test for their existence would be to determine if magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) models can give rise to such phenomena from first principles physics, without in any way predisposing the MHD model to have current sheet solutions in the corona. The PI will create such a model and require that such solutions "arise naturally" from the intrinsic, nonlinear transport and radiation physics within the model. The PI's model will be designed to provide exact, self-consistent solutions for sub-resolution, heated, radiating current sheets under solar coronal conditions, and include realistic mathematical expressions for the radiative cooling rate and the anisotropic transport coefficients that determine solar coronal heating. If the PI finds his anticipated current sheet solutions, then these would constitute the first theoretical evidence for the existence of current sheets in the solar corona and would lend support to the current sheet coronal heating hypothesis. Such solutions would contribute to our fundamental understanding of radiation generation and anisotropic transport processes in current sheets and would permit more accurate multi-dimensional MHD simulations for increasing our understanding of magnetic reconnection, a phenomenon that is pervasive in space physics, astrophysics, and plasma physics. Magnetic reconnection is also a key phenomenon in the most energetic space weather events.