MAXIMUM E N E R G Y

OF SEMI-INFINITE MAGNETIC-FIELD CONFIGURATIONS

P.A. Sturrock

Center for Space Science and Astrophyiscs

Stanford University

EXTENDED ABSTRACT

In solar physics and many other areas of astrophysics, one is interested in

the properties of magnetic-field configurations that extend out from a given
surface that m a y be termed the "source surface." (See, for instance, Parker 1979;
Priest 1982.) If the field is assumed to extend to infinity, we m a y refer to such
configurations as "semi-infinite." For instance, the magnetic field of a solar
active region maybe considered to extend upwards from a planar source surface.

I f - to use solar terminology - the coronal pressure is sufficiently small

compared with the magnetic pressure, it is permissible to ignore the pressure
gradient (and also the gravitational force) associated with the gas, and focus
attention only on configurations of a current-carrying magnetic field. In general,
the currents will comprise two different types: there m a y be distributed currents,
that are necessarily parallel to the magnetic field so that the field is locally force-
free; and there m a y be thin current sheets (in which the gas pressure m a y be
significant) corresponding to tangential discontinuities of the magnetic field.

As might be expected, and as we have found from computer investigations

(Barnes and Sturrock 1972; Klimchuk, Sturrock and Yang 1988; Sturrock and
Woodbury 1967; Yang, Sturrock and Antiochos 1986), the field becomes
increasingly stressed as the foot-points of magnetic field lines are subjected to
increasingly large shearing displacements. We have found that foot-point
shearing motions tend to inflate the magnetic field, thereby increasing the energ~y
of the field. For solar and other astrophysical purposes, it is important to know
whether the energy of the magnetic field can be increased indefinitely by foot-point
motion, or whether there is some limit to the energy of a configuration with
prescribed magnetic flux distribution on the source surface.

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 Aly (1984) has conjectured that the maximum-energy state of a magnetic-
field configuration is the open-field state, in which all field lines extend from the
source surface out to infinity. Aly (1985) has shown that, for the case of magnetic-
field configurations of translational symmetry subject to a class of shearing
motions characterized by a single parameter (in which case the energy is
unbounded), the field tends to the open state as the stress increases progressively.

We discuss Aly's conjecture and argue that it is valid for all cases for which
the source surface and the surface flux distribution are such that the magnetic
energy can be shown to be finite. Aly (1984) has shown, by using the virial
theorem, that it is possible to set upper limits to the magnetic energy for certain
classes of source surface.

We first argue that the existence of a maximum-energy configuration

depends upon the topology of the source surface. For multiply connected surfaces,
there is no maximum-energy state but, for certain simply connected surfaces, it
has been shown that there is a maximum-energy state. We conjecture that, for
all simply connected surfaces, and for compact flux distributions on those
surfaces, the magnetic energy is bounded.

We also discussed the concept of a "open" magnetic field. A simple way to

visualize such a configuration, and also a simple way to calculate the open
configuration, is as follows. Leave the positive polarity magnetic flux at the
source surface unchanged, b u t change the sign of the negative-polarity magnetic
flux on the source surface. This leads to a monopolar flux distribution that
necessarily extends to infinity. The open configuration has the same field-line
configuration, but the directions of the field vectors correspond to the actual
surface flux distribution. The open field configuration therefore contains current
sheets where the magnetic flux changes sign.

W.e next consider situations for which the magnetic energy is known to be
bounded, and argue that there must be a maximum-energy configuration.
Furthermore, the energy of the maximum-energy state must be unchanged to
first order for arbitrary small foot-point motions of the field lines.

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