White Paper / Preprint The Coronal Heating Problem Through the Lens of GCST Global Complexity–Stability Theory as an Explanation of the Anomalously High Solar Corona Temperature
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Abstract
The coronal heating problem — one of the longest-standing puzzles in solar physics — asks why the corona reaches temperatures of 1–3 million K while the photosphere is only ~5800 K. Classical mechanisms (wave heating, magnetic reconnection) explain only part of the required energy.
Global Complexity–Stability Theory (GCST) offers a novel interpretation: the corona is the external dissipation layer for accumulated structural debt in the Sun’s magnetic field. In the interior and chromosphere, the rate of complexity generation α significantly exceeds local dissipation γ, forcing structural debt D to be transported upward. In the corona, where γ is minimal, this debt is forcibly released through plasma heating — the mechanism behind the million-degree temperatures.
The core GCST stability condition is
In the photosphere/chromosphere G_⊙ ≈ 0.7–0.9 (debt accumulation); in the corona G_⊙ <<
0.1 → rapid debt release → coronal heating.