Mass Flows in Expanding Coronal Loops

Abstract

An expansion of cross-sectional area directly impacts the mass flow along a coronal loop, and significantly alters the radiative and hydrodynamic evolution of that loop as a result. Previous studies have found that an area expansion from chromosphere to corona significantly lengthens the cooling time of the corona, and appears to suppress draining from the corona. In this work, we examine the fluid dynamics to understand how the mass flow rate, the energy balance, and the cooling and draining timescales are affected by a non-uniform area. We find that in loops with moderate or large expansion (cross-sectional area expansion factors of 2, 3, 10, 30, 100 from photosphere to apex), impulsive heating, for either direct thermal heating or electron beam heating, induces a steady flow into the corona, so that the coronal density continues to rise during the cooling phase, whereas a uniform loop drains during the cooling phase. The induced upflow carries energy into the corona, balancing the losses from thermal conduction, and continues until thermal conduction weakens enough so that it can no longer support the radiative losses of the transition region (TR). As a result, the plasma cools primarily radiatively until the onset of catastrophic collapse. The speed and duration of the induced upflow both increase in proportion to the rate of area expansion. We argue that observations of blue-shifted spectral lines, therefore, could place a constraint on a loop's area expansion.