Initiation Route of Coronal Mass Ejections. II. The Role of Filament Mass

Abstract

A thorough understanding of the initiation of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which is manifested as a slow rise of pre-eruptive structures before the impulsive ejection in kinematics, is key for forecasting solar eruptions. In our previous work, we showed that the slow rise of a hot flux rope with coronal mass density is caused by the moderate magnetic reconnection occurring in the hyperbolic flux tube (HFT) combined with the torus instability. However, it remains unclear how the initiation process varies when a filament is present in the pre-eruptive flux rope. In this work, we reveal the complete initiation route of a CME containing filament mass with a state-of-the-art full-magnetohydrodynamics simulation. The comprehensive analyses show that the filament mass has an important impact on the CME initiation through triggering and driving the slow rise of flux rope with its drainage, besides the contributions of HFT reconnection and torus instability. Finally, in combination with our previous work, we propose that the enhanced drainage of filament mass and various features related to the HFT reconnection, such as the split of pre-eruptive structure and the preflare loops and X-ray emissions, can serve as precursors of CME initiation in observations.