Flux Rope Formation Due to Shearing and Zipper Reconnection

Abstract

Zipper reconnection has been proposed as a mechanism for creating most of the twist in the flux tubes that are present prior to eruptive flares and coronal mass ejections. We have conducted a first numerical experiment on this new regime of reconnection, where two initially untwisted parallel flux tubes are sheared and reconnected to form a large flux rope. We describe the properties of this experiment, including the linkage of magnetic flux between concentrated flux sources at the base of the simulation, the twist of the newly formed flux rope and the conversion of mutual magnetic helicity in the sheared pre-reconnection state into the self-helicity of the newly formed flux rope.

arXiv comment20 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in Solar Physics

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• An MHD Modeling of Successive X2.2 and X9.3 Solar Flares of 2017 September 6
• Quantifying the Toroidal Flux of Pre-existing Flux Ropes of CMEs
• Formation of a tiny flux rope in the center of an active region driven by magnetic flux emergence, convergence, and cancellation
• Can Multi-Threaded Flux Tubes in Coronal Arcades Support a Magnetohydrodynamic Avalanche?
• Formation and Immediate Deformation of a Small Filament Through Intermittent Magnetic Interactions