On the Asymmetric Longitudinal Oscillations of a Pikelner's Model Prominence

Abstract

We present analytical and numerical models of a normal-polarity quiescent prominence that are based on the model of Pikelner (Solar Phys. 1971, 17, 44 ). We derive the general analytical expressions for the two-dimensional equilibrium plasma quantities such as the mass density and a gas pressure, and we specify magnetic-field components for the prominence, which corresponds to a dense and cold plasma residing in the dip of curved magnetic-field lines. With the adaptation of these expressions, we solve numerically the 2D, nonlinear, ideal MHD equations for a Pikelner's model of a prominence that is initially perturbed by reducing the gas pressure at the dip of magnetic-field lines. Our findings reveal that as a result of pressure perturbations the prominence plasma starts evolving in time and this leads to the antisymmetric magnetoacoustic--gravity oscillations as well as to the mass-density growth at the magnetic dip, and the magnetic-field lines subside there. This growth depends on the depth of magnetic dip. For a shallower dip, less plasma is condensed and vice-versa. We conjecture that the observed long-period magnetoacoustic-gravity oscillations in various prominence systems are in general the consequence of the internal pressure perturbations of the plasma residing in equilibrium at the prominence dip.