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@article{Cargill:2026:mnras/stag1453,
author = {Cargill, PJ and Hood, AW and Johnson, D},
doi = {mnras/stag1453},
journal = {Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society},
title = {Plasma cooling by thermal conduction in the magnetically closed solar corona with large spatial variations in the magnetic field strength},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stag1453},
volume = {551},
year = {2026}
}
TY - JOUR
AB - <jats:title>ABSTRACT</jats:title> <jats:p>Plasma cooling by thermal conduction is considered for solar coronal magnetic loops that have large variations in their magnetic field strength and hence cross-sectional area. In terms of a ‘cooling time’, for all cases considered an increase in the cross sectional area from base to apex leads to longer cooling times than for a loop with uniform area. Although this result is expected, this paper reveals, for the first time, a vast range of different cooling outcomes that depend on the details of the prescribed loop geometry. While a simple approach suggests that the cooling time could scale with the average area, $\langle A \rangle$, this only holds when the region of the most significant area variation and the hottest plasma coincide. Instead, analytic and quasi-analytic solutions show that this scaling can greatly exaggerate the effect of $\langle A \rangle$ on the cooling time. For example, there are cases in which the cooling time scales as $\ln (\langle A \rangle)$. Thus, conductive cooling needs to be considered on a case-by-case basis. The results can be understood in terms of an artificial ‘heating’ associated with a non-uniform loop area.</jats:p>
AU - Cargill,PJ
AU - Hood,AW
AU - Johnson,D
DO - mnras/stag1453
PY - 2026///
SN - 0035-8711
TI - Plasma cooling by thermal conduction in the magnetically closed solar corona with large spatial variations in the magnetic field strength
T2 - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stag1453
UR - https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stag1453
VL - 551
ER -