Spatiotemporal Low First Ionization Potential Abundance: A Catalyst for Coronal Condensation

Abstract Radiative losses play a critical role in the cooling of plasmas. When chromospheric plasma is sufficiently heated, it can flow into coronal loops, which subsequently cool down due to radiation. From observations, we infer that this cooling does not occur uniformly, often resulting in coronal condensations such as coronal rain. To date, coronal condensations have only been found in simulations of steadily heated loops, and never in impulsively heated ones. We implement spatiotemporally variable elemental abundances in a radiative hydrodynamic code. Flows, including chromospheric evaporation, directly cause a shift in the local elemental abundances, which then affects the local radiative loss rate. As a consequence, we find that incorporating spatiotemporal low first ionization potential elemental abundances into coronal loop simulations directly causes coronal condensations, which are otherwise absent in impulsively heated loop or flare models. We conclude that spatiotemporal variations in elemental abundances are a fundamental feature of the solar corona and are therefore necessary to accurately model radiation.