A one-dimensional loop model invoking reconnection-driven turbulence for electron acceleration
Abstract
We have recently developed a one-dimensional flare loop model in which magnetic energy release occurs via loop retraction following reconnection. The plasma in our retracting flux tube evolves several propagating shock including a kind of slow magnetosonic shock at which the plasma is heated to flare temperatures. The model has proven able to reproduce several features observed in flares. Our model, like that original proposed by Petschek, is framed in terms of fluid equations (MHD), and therefore lacks the population of non-thermal electrons. While missing from fluid models, non-thermal electrons are one of the most important characteristics observed in flares. A separate line of flare modeling has focused on the generation of non-thermal electrons by, for example, MHD turbulence. These model have not generally included the reconnection process believed to drive that turbulence. Here we describe a model in which flux retracting from reconnection generates turbulence, which then generates a non-thermal electron population. While not entirely self-consistent, this model combines into a single chain those elements by which magnetic energy is converted into different forms observed in flares.
- Publication:
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AAS/Solar Physics Division Abstracts #48
- Pub Date:
- August 2017
- Bibcode:
- 2017SPD....4810810L