The Relationship between the Sudden Change of the Lorentz Force and the Magnitude of Associated Flares
The rapid and irreversible change of photospheric magnetic fields associated with flares has been confirmed by many recent studies. These studies showed that the photospheric magnetic fields respond to coronal field restructuring and turn to a more horizontal state near the magnetic polarity inversion line (PIL) after eruptions. Recent theoretical work has shown that the change in the Lorentz force associated with a magnetic eruption will lead to such a field configuration at the photosphere. The Helioseismic Magnetic Imager has been providing unprecedented full-disk vector magnetograms covering the rising phase of the solar cycle 24. In this study, we analyze 18 flares in four active regions, with GOES X-ray class ranging from C4.7 to X5.4. We find that there are permanent and rapid changes of magnetic field around the flaring PIL, the most notable of which is the increase of the transverse magnetic field. The changes of fields integrated over the area and the derived change of Lorentz force both show a strong correlation with flare magnitude. It is the first time that such magnetic field changes have been observed even for C-class flares. Furthermore, for seven events with associated coronal mass ejections (CMEs), we use an estimate of themore » impulse provided by the Lorentz force, plus the observed CME velocity, to estimate the CME mass. We find that if the timescale of the back reaction is short, i.e., in the order of 10 s, the derived values of CME mass ({approx}10{sup 15} g) generally agree with those reported in literature.« less

title: Response of the Photospheric Magnetic Field to the X2.2 Flare on 2011 February 15
abstract: It is well known that the long-term evolution of the photospheric magnetic field plays an important role in building up free energy to power solar eruptions. Observations, despite being controversial, have also revealed a rapid and permanent variation of the photospheric magnetic field in response to the coronal magnetic field restructuring during the eruption. The Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager instrument (HMI) on board the newly launched Solar Dynamics Observatory produces seeing-free full-disk vector magnetograms at consistently high resolution and high cadence, which finally makes possible an unambiguous and comprehensive study of this important back-reaction process. In this study, we present a near disk-center, GOES-class X2.2 flare, which occurred in NOAA AR 11158 on 2011 February 15. Using the magnetic field measurements made by HMI, we obtained the first solid evidence of a rapid (in about 30 minutes) and irreversible enhancement in the horizontal magnetic field at the flaring magnetic polarity inversion line (PIL) by a magnitude of {approx}30%. It is also shown that the photospheric field becomes more sheared and more inclined. This field evolution is unequivocally associated with the flare occurrence in this sigmoidal active region, with the enhancement area located in between the two chromospheric flare ribbons andmore » the initial conjugate hard X-ray footpoints. These results strongly corroborate our previous conjecture that the photospheric magnetic field near the PIL must become more horizontal after eruptions, which could be related to the newly formed low-lying fields resulting from the tether-cutting reconnection.« less

title: First Flare-related Rapid Change of Photospheric Magnetic Field Observed by Solar Dynamics Observatory
abstract: Photospheric magnetic field not only plays important roles in building up free energy and triggering solar eruptions, but also has been observed to change rapidly and permanently responding to the coronal magnetic field restructuring due to coronal transients. The Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager instrument (HMI) on board the newly launched Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) produces seeing-free full-disk vector magnetograms at consistently high resolution and high cadence, which finally makes possible an unambiguous and comprehensive study of this important back-reaction process. In this study, we present a near disk-center, GOES-class X2.2 flare occurred at NOAA AR 11158 on 2011 February 15 using the magnetic field measurements made by HMI. We obtained the first solid evidence of an enhancement in the transverse magnetic field at the flaring magnetic polarity inversion line (PIL) by a magnitude of 70%. This rapid and irreversible field evolution is unequivocally associated with the flare occurrence, with the enhancement area located in between the two chromospheric flare ribbons. Similar findings have been made for another two major flare events observed by SDO. These results strongly corroborate our previous suggestion that the photospheric magnetic field near the PIL must become more horizontal after eruptions. 
In-depth studies will follow to further link the photospheric magnetic field changes with the dynamics of coronal mass ejections, when full Stokes inversion is carried out to generate accurate magnetic field vectors.

title: Rapid Changes of Photospheric Magnetic Field after Tether-cutting Reconnection and Magnetic Implosion
abstract: The rapid, irreversible change of the photospheric magnetic field has been recognized as an important element of the solar flare process. This Letter reports such a rapid change of magnetic fields during the 2011 February 13 M6.6 flare in NOAA AR 11158 that we found from the vector magnetograms of the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) with 12 minute cadence. High-resolution magnetograms of Hinode that are available at ~–5.5, –1.5, 1.5, and 4 hr relative to the flare maximum are used to reconstruct a three-dimensional coronal magnetic field under the nonlinear force-free field (NLFFF) assumption. UV and hard X-ray images are also used to illuminate the magnetic field evolution and energy release. The rapid change is mainly detected by HMI in a compact region lying in the center of the magnetic sigmoid, where the mean horizontal field strength exhibited a significant increase of 28%. The region lies between the initial strong UV and hard X-ray sources in the chromosphere, which are cospatial with the central feet of the sigmoid according to the NLFFF model. The NLFFF model further shows that strong coronal currents are concentrated immediately above the region, and that, more intriguingly, the coronal current system underwent an apparent downward collapse after the sigmoid eruption. These results are discussed in favor of both the tether-cutting reconnection producing the flare and the ensuing implosion of the coronal field resulting from the energy release.

title: Nuclear physics at the SCRIT electron scattering facility
abstract: Nuclear physics at the SCRIT electron scattering facility Toshimi Suda1,∗, Tatsuya Adachi1, Tatsuya Amagai1, Akitomo Enokizono2, Masahiro Hara3, Toshitada Hori3, Shin’ichi Ichikawa3, Kazuyoshi Kurita2, Takaya Miyamoto1, Ryo Ogawara2, Tetsuya Ohnishi3, Yuuto Shimakura2, Tadaaki Tamae1, Mamoru Togasaki2, Masanori Wakasugi3, Shuo Wang1, and Kayoko Yanagi1 1Research Center for Electron Photon Science, Tohoku University, 1-2-1 Mikamine, Sendai 982-0826 2Department of Physics, Rikkyo University, Nishiikebukuro, Toshima, Tokyo 171-8501 3Nishina Center for Accelerator-Based Science, RIKEN, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198 ∗E-mail: suda@lns.tohoku.ac.jp

title: A STANDARD-TO-BLOWOUT JET
abstract: The commonly observed jets provide critical information on the small-scale energy release in the solar atmosphere. We report a near disk-center jet on 2010 July 20, observed by the Solar Dynamics Observatory. In this event, the standard interchange magnetic reconnection between an emerging flux spanning 9 × 103 km and ambient open fields is followed by a blowout-like eruption. In the standard stage, as the emerging negative element approached the nearby positive network fields, a jet with a dome-like base in EUV grew for 30 minutes before the jet spire began to migrate laterally with enhanced flux emergence. In the blowout stage, the above converging fields collided and the subsequent cancellation produced a UV microflare lasting seven minutes, in which the dome of the jet seemed to be blown out as (1) the spire swung faster and exhibited an unwinding motion before vanishing, (2) a rising loop and a blob erupted leaving behind cusped structures, with the blob spiraling outward in acceleration after the flare maximum, and (3) ejecting material with a curtain-like structure at chromospheric to transition-region temperatures also underwent a transverse motion. It is thus suggested that the flare reconnection rapidly removes the outer fields of the emerging flux to allow its twisted core field to erupt, a scenario favoring the jet-scale magnetic breakout model as recently advocated by Moore et al. in 2010.

title: Dynamical electron mass in a strong magnetic field
abstract: Motivated by recent interest in understanding properties of strongly magnetized matter, we study the dynamical electron mass generated through approximate chiral symmetry breaking in QED in a strong magnetic field. We reliably calculate the dynamical electron mass by numerically solving the nonperturbative Schwinger-Dyson equations in a consistent truncation within the lowest Landau level approximation. It is shown that the generation of dynamical electron mass in a strong magnetic field is significantly enhanced by the perturbative electron mass that explicitly breaks chiral symmetry in the absence of a magnetic field.

title: Critical Height for the Destabilization of Solar Prominences: Statistical Results from STEREO Observations
abstract: At which height is a prominence inclined to be unstable, or where is the most probable critical height for the prominence destabilization? This question was statistically studied based on 362 solar limb prominences well recognized by Solar Limb Prominence Catcher and Tracker from 2007 April to the end of 2009. We found that there are about 71% disrupted prominences (DPs), among which about 42% of them did not erupt successfully and about 89% of them experienced a sudden destabilization process. After a comprehensive analysis of the DPs, we

title: Top-quark mass measurement using events with missing transverse energy and jets at CDF.
abstract: We present a measurement of the top-quark mass using a sample of t ̄t events in 5.7 fb(-1) of integrated luminosity from p ̄p collisions at the Fermilab Tevatron with √s=1.96 TeV and collected by the CDF II Detector. We select events having large missing transverse energy, and four, five, or six jets with at least one jet tagged as coming from a b quark, and reject events with identified charged leptons. This analysis considers events from the semileptonic t ̄t decay channel, including events that contain tau leptons. The measurement is based on a multidimensional template method. We fit the data to signal templates of varying top-quark masses and background templates, and measure a top-quark mass of M(top)=172.32±2.4(stat)±1.0(syst)  GeV/c(2).

title: Is there a maximum magnetic field in QED
abstract: It was recently conjectured by Shabad and Usov that there exists in QED a maximum magnetic field of 10 42 G , above which the magnetized vacuum becomes unstable. Using a nonperturbative analysis that consistently incorporates the effective electron mass and the screening effect in a strong magnetic field, we show that the conjectured phenomenon of positronium collapse never takes place. Thus, there does not exist a maximum magnetic field in QED and the magnetized vacuum is stable for all values of the magnetic field.

title: Unified field equations coupling four forces and principle of interaction dynamics
abstract: The main objective of this article is to postulate a principle of interaction dynamics (PID) and to derive field equations coupling the four fundamental interactions based on first principles. PID is a least action principle subject to div$_A$-free constraints for the variational element with $A$ being gauge potentials. The Lagrangian action is uniquely determined by 1) the principle of general relativity, 2) the $U(1)$, $SU(2)$ and $SU(3)$ gauge invariances, 3) the Lorentz invariance, and 4) the principle of representation invariance (PRI), introduced in . The unified field equations are then derived using PID. The field model spontaneously breaks the gauge symmetries, and gives rise to a new mass generation mechanism. 
The unified field model introduces a natural duality between the mediators and their dual mediators, and can be easily decoupled to study each individual interaction when other interactions are negligible. The unified field model, together with PRI and PID applied to individual interactions, provides clear explanations and solutions to a number of outstanding challenges in physics and cosmology, including e.g. the dark energy and dark matter phenomena, the quark confinement, asymptotic freedom, short-range nature of both strong and weak interactions, decay mechanism of sub-atomic particles, baryon asymmetry, and the solar neutrino problem.