Author: Anchee Kuter Date: April 12, 2025
E-mail: ancheeon@gmail.com
We propose the Tidal Layer Reflux Model (TLRM), a dynamic, fluid-based framework for understanding the Sun’s internal and atmospheric structure. Departing from traditional static “layered shell” models, TLRM suggests that solar layers arise from the interplay of thermal, convective, and magnetic flows, analogous to Earth’s oceanic tides. A key mechanism, termed reflux, involves periodic upwellings of plasma and energy from deeper layers to the surface, offering a novel explanation for the corona’s anomalously high temperatures. TLRM integrates observations such as solar granulation, differential rotation, and magnetic reconnection into a cohesive, dynamic layering paradigm. Its predictions are testable through helioseismology, coronal spectroscopy, and magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations, potentially resolving the coronal heating problem and unifying disparate solar phenomena.
Conventional solar models depict the Sun as a series of concentric zones—core, radiative zone, convective zone, photosphere, chromosphere, and corona. While this framework has underpinned solar physics for decades, it fails to fully address critical anomalies, notably the coronal heating problem: the corona reaches temperatures exceeding one million Kelvin, far surpassing the photosphere’s ~5,800 K. Proposed mechanisms, including wave heating, magnetic reconnection, and nanoflares, provide partial explanations but lack a unified theory for energy transport from the core to the outer atmosphere.
Advances in helioseismology and magnetic imaging reveal a Sun characterized by dynamic processes—differential rotation, rising flux tubes, and the tachocline’s shear layer—suggesting that solar “layers” are not fixed shells but fluid interfaces shaped by temperature, density, and magnetic gradients. Here, we introduce the Tidal Layer Reflux Model (TLRM), which reimagines solar structure as a system of dynamic fluid “tides.” Inspired by oceanic tidal flows, TLRM posits that layers shift and upwell due to internal forces, with reflux—periodic surges of plasma and magnetic flux—driving energy directly to the corona, thus addressing the heating puzzle.
TLRM retains the core as the Sun’s fusion-driven energy source but redefines layering as a product of dynamic fluid interfaces. Unlike static models, where layers form via uniform radiative and convective gradients, TLRM views boundaries as transient, akin to oceanic thermoclines, responsive to local MHD conditions. These interfaces emerge from the balance of thermal, convective, and magnetic forces, capable of migrating or dissipating.
The term “tidal” in TLRM denotes periodic fluid displacements driven by differential rotation, magnetic tension, and internal waves—not external gravitational forces. The tachocline, a shear zone between the radiative and convective zones, is pivotal, generating upwelling plasma parcels. These tidal flows span timescales from minutes (e.g., granulation) to years (e.g., solar cycles), shaping the Sun’s layered structure dynamically.