Helicity shedding by flux rope ejection

Institute of Physics and Astronomy, University of Potsdam, Potsdam 14476, Germany
e-mail: bkliem@uni-potsdam.de

Received: 12 October 2021
Accepted: 13 November 2021

Abstract

Context. We quantitatively address the conjecture that magnetic helicity must be shed from the Sun by eruptions launching coronal mass ejections in order to limit its accumulation in each hemisphere.

Aims. By varying the ratio of guide and strapping field and the flux rope twist in a parametric simulation study of flux rope ejection from approximately marginally stable force-free equilibria, different ratios of self- and mutual helicity are set and the onset of the torus or helical kink instability is obtained.

Methods. The helicity shed is found to vary over a broad range from a minor to a major part of the initial helicity, with self helicity being largely or completely shed and mutual helicity, which makes up the larger part of the initial helicity, being shed only partly. Torus-unstable configurations with subcritical twist and without a guide field shed up to about two-thirds of the initial helicity, while a highly twisted, kink-unstable configuration sheds only about one-quarter. The parametric study also yields stable force-free flux rope equilibria up to a total flux-normalized helicity of 0.25, with a ratio of self- to total helicity of 0.32 and a ratio of flux rope to external poloidal flux of 0.94.

Results. These results numerically demonstrate the conjecture of helicity shedding by coronal mass ejections and provide a first account of its parametric dependence. Both self- and mutual helicity are shed significantly; this reduces the total initial helicity by a fraction of ∼0.4 − 0.65 for typical source region parameters.