Plasma Heating and Thermal Fronts Following Localized and Impulsive Reconnection in the Solar Corona

Details Plasma Heating and Thermal Fronts Following Localized and Impulsive Reconnection in the Solar Corona Plasma Heating and Thermal Fronts Following Localized and Impulsive Reconnection in the Solar Corona

May 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010aas...21632004g&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #216, #320.04; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.911

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

We present a new model of post-reconnection flux tube dynamics. Reconnection is assumed to occur across a short-lived and localized region in a Green-Syrovatskii current sheet with a guide field. The reconnected field lines form two V-shaped flux tubes whose sharp initial angle decomposes into two rotational discontinuities (RDs) that move along the tube's legs at the local Alfven speed, rotating and super-sonically accelerating plasma toward the center. These two colliding flows generate gas dynamic shocks (GDSs) that move outwardly from the center of the tube, heating the plasma. The energy conversion in this model occurs in two steps, converting magnetic energy first to kinetic energy at the RDs. The kinetic energy is then partially converted to thermal energy at the GDSs. This post-reconnection evolution is independent of reconnection mechanism.
We have included the effect of viscosity and thermal conduction, including strong temperature dependence and field-aligned anisotropy. We developed a computer program, called DEFT, that simulates the dynamics of the reconnected flux tubes, including these transport effects thereby resolving the inner structure of the GDSs. We predict for the first time the length of the thermal fronts that extend in front of the GDSs, capable of driving chromospheric evaporation. We also determine the spatial and temporal variations of density and temperature along the reconnected flux tubes, and generate synthetic differential emission measure and emission measure profiles that can be compared to observations. We simulate the phase of evolution where the retraction ceases and the unconfined, high-temperature plug disassembles itself under its own pressure.
This work was supported by the NSF.

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