Reconnection in the Post-Impulsive Phase of Solar Flares

Abstract

Using a recently developed analytical procedure, we determine the rate of magnetic reconnection in the "standard" model of eruptive solar flares. During the late phase, the neutral line is located near the lower tip of the reconnection current sheet, and the upper region of the current sheet is bifurcated into a pair of Petschek-type shocks. Despite the presence of these shocks, the reconnection rate remains slow if the resistivity is uniform and the flow is laminar. Fast reconnection is achieved only if there is some additional mechanism that can shorten the length of the diffusion region at the neutral line. Observations of plasma flows by the X-Ray Telescope (XRT) on Hinode imply that the diffusion region is in fact quite short. Two possible mechanisms for reducing the length of the diffusion region are localized resistivity and MHD turbulence.

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Cited by in corpus (11)

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• Defining the Middle Corona
• The Dynamical Behavior of Reconnection-driven Termination Shocks in Solar Flares: Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations
• Statistical Study of Plasmoids associated with post-CME Current Sheet
• Exploring Plasma Heating in the Current Sheet Region in a Three-Dimensional Coronal Mass Ejection Simulation
• Resistively-limited current sheet implosions in planar anti-parallel (1D) and null-point containing (2D) magnetic field geometries
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• A Magnetogram-matching Method for Energizing Magnetic Flux Ropes Toward Eruption
• Analysis of a long-duration AR throughout five solar rotations: Magnetic properties and ejective events
• The prominence driven forced reconnection in the solar corona and associated plasma dynamics