A New Method for Coronal Force-Free Field Computation That Exactly Implements the Boundary Normal Current Density Condition

Previously we developed a method of coronal force-free field construction using vector potentials. In this method, the boundary normal component of the vector potential should be adjusted at every iteration step to implement the boundary normal current density, which is provided by observations. The method was a variational method in the sense that the excessive kinetic energy is removed from the system at every iteration step. The boundary condition imposing the normal current density, however, is not compatible with the variational procedure seeking for the minimum energy state, which is employed by most force-free field solvers currently being used. To resolve this problem, we have developed a totally new method of force-free field construction. Our new method uses a unique magnetic field description using two scalar functions. Our procedure is non-variational and can impose the boundary normal current density exactly. We have tested the new force-free solver for standard Low & Lou fields and Titov-Demoulin flux ropes. Our code excels others in both examples, especially in Titov-Demoulin flux ropes, for which most codes available now yield poor results. Application to a real active region will also be presented.