SPH simulations of plasma dynamics in magnetic coronal loops

IBARRA, E; COSTA, A.; PELLIZZA, L. J. AND ROVIRA, M.

Coimbra, Portugal

Congreso; The Physics of Chromospheric Plasmas; 2006

Astronomical Observatory of the University of Coimbra (Coimbra, Portugal)

Within the analytical description of coronal loops, the heating function is the poorest known term in the energy equation. Usually, different expressions for this term are tested, which simulate different heating mechanisms (heating by waves from the chromosphere, density dependent heating, violent deposition of internal energy, etc.). This procedure is useful to adjust boundary conditions or to compare with observations. Nevertheless, analytical approaches require the use of greatly simplified heating functions, while usual numerical techniques require highly symetric geometries. The Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method allows to avoid both problems using a lagrangian description of the plasma. In this work we present an application of the SPH technique to the analysis of the dynamiccs of coronal loops, and our first results using this approach.