Turbulent Erosion of Magnetic Flux Tubes

摘要

Results from a numerical and analytical investigation of the solution of a nonlinear axisymmetric diffusion equation for the magnetic field are presented for the case when the nonlinear dependence of the diffusivity (B) on the magnetic field satisfies basic physical requirements. We find that for sufficiently strong nonlinearity (i.e., for sufficiently strong reduction of inside the tube) a current sheet is spontaneously formed around the tube within one diffusion timescale.