PLASMA DYNAMICS AT THE PROMINENCE-CORONA INTERFACE

The interface between the cool and dense plasma typical of a prominence and its tenuous and hot surrounding coronal plasma is poorly understood. We study the plasma dynamics at this interface using a three-dimensional particle-in-cell code, which enables us to carry out simulations on spatial and temporal scales of the order of the Debye length and plasma period, respectively. The results show that anomalous Bohm diffusion across magnetic field lines occurs at the interface, leading to mixing of the two plasmas. It is also shown that collisions with neutral hydrogen within the prominence plasma are of little importance for the plasma dynamics in the prominence-corona transition region. In particular, the temperature of the prominence plasma crossing the interface into the corona can become anisotropic due to preferential heating by instabilities originating from unstable velocity distributions. Our results pertain to spatial scales significantly smaller than scales commonly used in magnetohydrodynamic simulations, and they shed light on processes that are very likely to be present at the interface.