From Solar and Stellar Flares to Coronal Heating: Theory and Observations of How Magnetic Reconnection Regulates Coronal Conditions

Abstract

There is currently no explanation of why the corona has the temperature and density it has. We present a model which explains how the dynamics of magnetic reconnection regulates the conditions in the corona. A bifurcation in magnetic reconnection at a critical state enforces an upper bound on the coronal temperature for a given density. We present observational evidence from 107 flares in 37 sun-like stars that stellar coronae are near this critical state. The model may be important to self-organized criticality models of the solar corona.

13 pages, 2 figures, accepted to Ap. J. Lett., February 2008

References in corpus (2)

• A catastrophe model for fast magnetic reconnection onset
• A Model for Spontaneous Onset of Fast Magnetic Reconnection

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• Estimates of Densities and Filling Factors from a Cooling Time Analysis of Solar Microflares Observed with RHESSI