Since the mid 1900's it has been supposed that the global magnetic field surrounding a quiescent prominence provides the force required to prevent its collapse under the influence of the Sun's gravitational field. Many theoretical models of this magnetic field have been produced in which it is assumed that the prominence plasma is supported in a dip in the field lines by the associated magnetic tension force. It is the aim of this thesis to propose further models of the magnetic field in order to extend our knowledge and understanding of prominences. In doing so we present three distinct models. The first is an extension of the twisted flux tube model for prominences proposed by Priest et al. (1989). Here we present analytical solutions to the magnetohydrostatic equilibrium equation within the tube using the so- called generating function method in which we select two distinct functional forms of the longitudinal field component. Unlike the solutions found by Priest et al., we allow for large deviations of the field from cylindrical symmetry. The prominence is represented by a finite vertical sheet of mass and current and we show that it is possible for such a sheet to be in static equilibrium everywhere along its vertical extent. Next we consider the model of van Ballegooijen and Martens in which photospheric motions drive a reconnection process leading to the formation of a helical magnetic structure capable of supporting dense prominence plasma in the low points of the helical windings. Under the assumption of cylindrical symmetry we analyse two methods of solving the magnetohydrostatic equilibrium equation in which the positions of the field line footpoints at the photosphere are imposed. Using a combination of analytical and numerical techniques, we study the quasi-static evolution of the model as the height of the helical axis increases. Unlike the numerical analysis of van Ballegooijen and Martens we are able to produce inverse polarity configurations without the problem of singular field components at the helical axis. Lastly we present an analysis of the interaction of a finite, vertical sheet of mass and current (representing a prominence) with an external constant-current force-free field. We formalise two distinct boundary-value problems in which the distribution of the normal magnetic field component along the photosphere is imposed along with the distribution of either the normal magnetic field component across the prominence or the prominence surface current. In both cases we demonstrate for particular boundary conditions that it is possible for equilibrium solutions to exist of both normal and inverse polarity in which dense material is supported everywhere along the prominence sheet. In particular we are, for the first time, able to produce an inverse polarity equilibrium configuration in which the field components are locally bounded and closed field lines exist above the prominence sheet while an X-type neutral point lies below it.

The magnetic field greatly influences the plasma in the solar atmosphere and in this thesis we consider the effect of the field on the stability of the plasma. The many observations that have been made suggest that two types of field structure play a major role. Firstly a current sheet - this has field lines which change direction in a thin, current forming region, but are fairly uniform outside. We consider the case where the field strength is zero along the neutral line so that a gas pressure gradient is required across the sheet to balance the magnetic pressure gradient. Secondly a force-free field - here the magnetic force is zero, which requires the magnetic pressure to be much larger than the gas pressure. In the neutral current sheet we examine the thermal instability and the tearing-mode instability. While in the force-free magnetic arch system we look for a thermal instability which can occur when the foot points of the arch are sheared. When we investigated the thermal stability of the current sheet we found that as its length increases it passes through a series of stable equilibria until a value, L[sub]max, is reached when the sheet cools down to a max new stable equilibrium. For coronal conditions, values for L[sub]max and max cooling time are in fair agreement with the observed values for quiescent prominences. We calculate the growth rate of the tearing-mode instability in a neutral current sheet with no energy sources or sinks and find that the maximum growth rate can be significantly larger in the current sheet than in the sheared field of constant magnitude considered by others. Also the growth rate decreases when the ratio of gas to magnetic pressure is reduced. We find that the growth rate is significantly inhibited if the current sheet has a transverse magnetic field which is large enough. Lastly we examine the thermal balance in a sheared, force-free magnetic field and show that thermal instability can occur if the field is sheared enough. We assume thermal equilibrium between radiative loss and thermal conduction and we take gravity balanced by a pressure gradient. If, for example, the density at the base of the field is ten times larger than the normal coronal value, as it may be in coronal condensations, then there is instability if the shear angle is greater than 63 °. The presence of a large enough mechanical heating is found to prevent the instability occurring.

Theoretical investigations have been made of arbitrary amplitude electrostatic solitary waves in non-thermal plasmas, which may be of relevance to ionospheric and magnetospheric plasmas, and dusty plasmas, which are most common in earth's and cometary environments as well as in planetary rings, for understanding the nonlinear features of localised electrostatic disturbances in such space plasma systems. This thesis starts with an introductory chapter where a very brief historical review of solitary waves in plasmas has been presented. The study of arbitrary amplitude electrostatic solitary waves in non-thermal plasma has considered a plasma system consisting of warm adiabatic ions and non- thermal electrons. It is found that a non-thermal electron distribution may change the nature of ion-acoustic solitary waves. If the ions are assumed to respond as a fluid to perturbations in the potential, with no significant trapping in a potential well, then a thermal plasma only supports solitary waves with a density peak. However, with a suitable distribution of non-thermal electrons, solitary waves with both density peaks and density depressions may exist. This study has also included a numerical analysis showing how these electrostatic solitary structures evolve with time. The investigation has then been extended to magnetised plasmas to study the effects of magnetic field on obliquely propagating electrostatic solitary structures. This attempt first employed the reductive perturbation method and investigated the nonlinear properties of small but finite amplitude obliquely propagating solitary waves in this magnetised non-thermal plasma model. This study is then generalised to arbitrary amplitude solitary waves by the numerical solution of the full nonlinear system of equations. This numerical method has also been utilised to present a similar study in another popular plasma model, namely the two-electron-temperature plasma model. The study of arbitrary amplitude solitary waves in a dusty plasma has considered another plasma system which consists of an inertial dust fluid and ions with Maxwellian distribution and has investigated the nonlinear properties of dust- acoustic solitary waves. A numerical study has also been made to show how these dust-acoustic solitary waves evolve with time. The effects of non-thermal and vortex-like ion distributions are then incorporated into this study. The study of arbitrary amplitude electrostatic solitary waves in this thesis has finally been concluded with some brief discussion of our results and proposal for further studies, which are expected to generalise and develop our present work to some other extents, in this versatile area of research.

In this thesis, different aspects of the physics of flows in the solar atmosphere are examined. These are described by means of the set of (ideal) magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) and throughout the thesis there is a progressive refinement in the mathematical methods to solve these equations. First, an analysis of symmetric MHD equilibria is presented and the difficulties that are found in solving the steady equations, both analytically and numerically, are discussed in detail. A novel method to find exact solutions in the incompressible case is presented and families of solutions are given in different geometries. Then, attention is turned to flows in coronal magnetic structures, namely quiescent prominences (closed fieldlines) and polar plumes (open fieldlines), and MHD models for these structures are developed by following two different methods: for the former a semi- analytic approach while for the latter a linearisation through a low β assumption. In the prominence model, the effects of a subsonic flow along the fieldlines supporting the structure are studied and the results are compared both with a previous static model and with the observed flow speeds. For the plume model, flows are supposed to be transonic along the open fieldlines and their behaviour is studied for different distributions of temperature, density and magnetic flux. However, here the main goal is to demonstrate that coronal plumes are essentially magnetic features and some results of the model are compared with observations. Finally, a time dependent MHD code in spherical coordinates is presented. The aim is to study the interaction of the solar wind with the large scale coronal magnetic structures and the propagation of MHD waves. As a test in 1-D, simulations of the dynamic response of a spherically symmetric extended corona to changes at the outer pressure are studied, following a previous analytic work.

This thesis investigates the ducting of magnetoacoustic waves in coronal structures. The propagation of waves in current sheets and coronal loops has been examined in order to understand wave ducting in structured plasmas, and to provide an explanation of the observed oscillatory behaviour in the solar corona. Firstly a comprehensive review of the observations of loops and oscillations in the corona is given. An investigation into how the curvature of the loop alters the ducting of magnetoacoustic waves is then presented by studying the effect of the length, width and the density enhancement of the loop and also the frequency of oscillation. The effect of the curvature is to generate wave leakage from the loop. The guiding of magnetoacoustic waves by a current sheet is also considered. An investigation into the type of modes which may propagate and the time scales of oscillation is performed. Impulsively generated waves exhibit similar temporal signatures to observations of X-ray and radio emission. Periods of oscillation for all the ducted wave models are in good agreement with reported observations. The effect of a random boundary motion on a magnetospheric cavity is examined through numerical simulations. A broadband driving spectrum excites the quasi-monochromatic fast modes whose frequencies lie within the driving spectrum. These fast modes couple to an Alfvén mode if the frequency lies within the Alfvén continuum. The position of the resonant field lines and the Alfvén mode eigenfunction may be accurately calculated by assuming a periodic boundary motion. To conclude the work in this thesis the three-dimensional magnetic topologies surrounding neutral points are studied. The local linear magnetic structure about the null is found to depend only on a 3 X 3 matrix containing four parameters. The type of topology is dependent upon the nature of the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of this matrix.

The thermal equilibrium and evolution of coronal structure is studied in this thesis. A symmetric and constant cross-sectional coronal loop is considered and, because of the strong magnetic field, the plasma is confined to move along the field lines, so that a one-dimensional problem can be assumed. We begin by giving a brief description of the Sun and corresponding phenomena. Then a discussion of the basic MHD equations is given. Here, it is assumed that the heating function is spatially dependent and the cooling function is due to an optically thin plasma. The thermal equilibrium of uniform-pressure coronal loop is investigated. The effects due to varying the values of the parameters involved in the governing equations are studied. It is found that there is a critical decay length of the heating below which a hot coronal loop does not exist. It is suggested that thermal non-equilibrium occurs, allowing the existence of catastrophic cooling. A study of the stability of the equilibrium up to the second order approximation is presented, and it is found that the response of the structure not only depends on the amplitude of the disturbance, but also on whether the disturbance increases or decreases the static temperature. The thermal evolution of the above structure is also investigated by assuming that the inertial terms are small. The previous results related to the critical heating decay length are verified. The numerical simulation shows that an initial hot plasma evolves to a new equilibrium which has a cool summit. This equilibrium is identified as a prominence-like solution. Further investigations are made in order to show how the structure can either evolve to a hot or a cool summit temperature depending on whether the initial conditions are above or below threshold values. The evolution of a disturbance increasing or decreasing an initial equilibrium temperature is followed numerically verifying the prediction made in the stability analysis. Furthermore, the effect of gravity is considered in the thermal equilibrium of loop. Similar results were found as studied for a constant-pressure loop. However, it was found that the critical values in which thermal non-equilibrium can occur is increased. A magnetic dip is also included in this model and the thermal equilibrium is studied. Finally, extensions of the present work is presented and some preliminary results are discussed.

The problem of how the Sun's corona is heated is of central importance in Solar Physics research. In this thesis, a model is constructed of a typical coronal magnetic loop in order to investigate the response of coronal plasma to a time-dependent heating source. It is not the aim of the research to study in detail a particular heating mechanism but rather to understand the important features arising from time-dependent heating in general. A time-varying energy input into the coronal loop is required because it is likely that none of the suggested theoretical heating methods can provide a constant supply of heat to the corona. The magnetic field is taken to be strong enough that the loop dynamics reduce to a one-dimensional problem along the field. In addition, it is assumed that the radiative timescale in the corona is much longer than the sound travel time and thus, the plasma evolves isobarically. The thermal equilibria profiles along the coronal loop are then investigated for a simplified form of the optically thin radiation. Initially, a heating function that displays a regular, sinusoidal variation in time is introduced and it is found that there is a critical heating frequency above which a hot coronal loop solution can be maintained and below which the plasma temperature cools to chromospheric values. Pulse heating and the deposition of random-sized energy quanta in a loop are also investigated. An evaluation of the isobaric assumption to the corona is presented by allowing sound waves to propagate back and forth along the loop. It is found that the system can exhibit isobaric-like behaviour provided the acoustic timescale is short enough. Possible extensions of the developed loop model are discussed as well as the implications of time-dependent heating upon observations from the SOHO satellite.

Force-free equilibria are believed to be important in both an astrophysical and a laboratory context as minimum-energy configurations (see, for example, Woltjer, 1958; Taylor, 1974). Associated is the study of magnetic helicity and its invariance. In Chapter Two of this thesis we put forward a means of heating the corona by the rotation of the foot-points of a coronal "sunspot" magnetic field anchored in the photosphere. The method adopted is essentially that of Heyvaerts and Priest (1984), employing Taylor's Hypothesis (Taylor, 1974) and a magnetic helicity evolution equation. A characteristic of the Reversed-Field Pinch device is the appearance, at high enough values of the quantity "volt-seconds over toroidal flux", of a helical distortion to the basic axi-symmetric state. In Chapter Three we look for corresponding behaviour in the "sunspot equilibrium" of the previous chapter, with limited success. However, we go on to formulate a method of calculating general axi-symmetric fields above a sunspot given the normal field component at the photosphere. Chapters Four, Five and Six are concerned with equilibrium force-free fields in a sphere. The main aim here is the calculation minimum-energy configurations having magnetic flux crossing the boundary, and so we employ "relative helicity" (Berger and Field, 1984). In Chapter Four we consider the "P1(cosθ)" boundary radial field, finding that the minimum-energy state is always purely symmetric. In Chapter Five we treat the "P2(cosθ)" boundary condition. We find in this case that a "mixed state" is theoretically possible for high enough values of the helicity. In Chapter Six, we consider a general boundary field, which we use to model point sources of magnetic flux at the boundary of a spheromak, finding that in practice an axi-symmetric configuration is always the minimum-energy state. Finally, in Chapter Seven we present an extension to the theorem of Woltjer (1958), concerning the minimization of the magnetic energy of a magnetic structure, to include the case of a free boundary subjected to external pressure forces. To illustrate the theory, we have provided three applications, the first to a finite cylindrical flux and the remainder to possible spheromak configurations.

In the past few years it has been realised that loop structures are an important feature of the solar corona. Presumably, these structures outline the local magnetic field and in this thesis some theoretical aspects of solar coronal loops are considered. The starting point is to model the static equilibrium, in a 1 - D structure, and determine the temperature and density by solving the energy balance equation. The basic state is determined by two dimensionless parameters, namely the ratio of optically thin radiation to thermal conduction, and the ratio of mechanical heating to radiation, An important result is that when critical values of the parameters are exceeded thermal non-equilibrium- ensues and the loop rapidly cools from coronal temperatures ~ 106K to below 105K. A simple 2 - D model extends this work and results provide a possible explanation for several loop features. The thermal stability of coronal loops is investigated by developing two simple methods which apply to a wide class of equilibria. Stability is found to depend on the boundary conditions adopted but not critically on the form of the heating. A loop is shown to be stable if its conductive flux is large enough that it lies on the upper- of two equilibrium branches. Solar coronal loops are observed to be remarkably stable structures. A magneto hydrodynamic stability analysis of a model loop by the energy method suggests that the main reason for stability is the fact that the ends of the loop are anchored in the dense photosphere. Two-ribbon flares follow the eruption of an active region filament, which may lie along a magnetic flux tube. It is suggested that the eruption is caused by the kink instability, which sets in when the amount of magnetic twist in the flux tube exceeds a critical value. Occasionally active region loops may become unstable and give rise to small loop flares, which may also be a result of the kink instability. A more realistic model of an active region filament, that takes account of the overlying magnetic field, shows that instability may occur if either the twist or the height of the filament exceed critical values. Finally, the possibility that a solar flare is triggered by thermal non-equilibrium, instead of by magnetic instability, is investigated. This is demonstrated by solving approximately the energy equation for a loop under a balance between thermal conduction, optically thin radiation and a heating source. It is found that, if one starts with a cool equilibrium at a temperature about 104K and gradually increases the heating or decreases the loop pressure (or decreases the loop length), ultimately critical conditions are reached beyond which no cool equilibrium exists. The plasma rapidly heats up to a new quasi-equilibrium at typically 107K. During such a thermal flaring, any magnetic disruption or particle acceleration is of secondary importance.

The present study is concerned with the stability of a flow of viscous conducting liquid driven by a pressure gradient between two parallel walls in the presence of a transverse magnetic field, which is investigated using a Chebyshev collocation method. This magnetohydrodynamic counterpart of the classic plane Poiseuille flow is generally known as Hartmann flow. Although the magnetic field has a strong stabilizing effect, the turbulence is known to set in this flow similarly to its hydrodynamic counterpart well below the threshold predicted by the linear stability theory. Such a nonlinear transition to turbulence is thought to be mediated by unstable equilibrium flow states which may exist in addition to the base flow. Firstly, the weakly nonlinear stability analysis carried out in this study shows that Hartmann flow is subcritically unstable to small finite-amplitude disturbances regardless of the magnetic field strength. Secondly, two-dimensional nonlinear travelling wave states are found to exist in Hartmann flow at substantially subcritical Reynolds numbers starting from Ren = 2939 without the magnetic field and from Ren ∼ 6.50 × 103Ha in a sufficiently strong magnetic field defined by the Hartmann number Ha. Although the latter value is by a factor of seven lower than the linear stability threshold Rel ∼ 4.83×104Ha and by almost a factor of two lower than the value predicted by the mean-field (monoharmonic) approximation, it is still more than an order of magnitude higher than the experimentally observed value for the onset of turbulence in this flow. Three-dimensional disturbances are expected to bifurcate from these two-dimensional travelling waves or infinity and to extend to significantly lower Reynolds numbers. The by-product of this study are two developments of numerical techniques for linear and weakly nonlinear stability analysis. Firstly, a simple technique for avoiding spurious eigenvalues is developed for the solution of the Orr-Sommerfeld equation. Secondly, an efficient numerical method for evaluating Landau coefficients which describe small amplitude states in the vicinity of the linear stability threshold is introduced. The method differs from the standard approach by applying the solvability condition to the discretised rather than the continuous problem.