Talk abstract

Many previous theoretical studies of flux emergence use a twisted cylindrical tube in the solar interior as the initial condition. Important insights can be gained from this model, however, it does have shortcomings. The axis of the tube never fully emerges as dense plasma becomes trapped in magnetic dips and restrains its ascent. Also, since the entire tube is buoyant, the main photospheric footpoints (sunspots) continually drift apart. These problems make it difficult to produce a convincing sunspot pair. We aim to address these problems by considering a different initial condition, namely a toroidal flux tube. We perform numerical experiments and solve the 3D MHD equations. The dynamics are investigated through a range of initial field strengths and twists.