Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences Intranet
Prof Mitchell Berger
Personal Homepage
A model for reconnecting magnetic flux elements. Braided magnetic fields can be a source of energy for solar coronal heating.
The geometrical measure of writhe can be helpful in interpreting images of solar magnetic loops. The writhe depends on both the shape of the projection (S shape or inverse S) as well as the height. These two loops both have negative writhe of - 0.2. The low lying inverse S loop can be a model for a solar sigmoid, while the taller S loop can model an erupting prominence.
Research Interests
- Astrophysics, Solar Physics, Fluid Dynamics, Magnetohydrodynamics, Topology of Vector Fields, Knot Theory, Elasticity Theory, Ancient Astronomy