Particle acceleration by magnetic reconnection in a twisted coronal loop

Mykola Gordovskyy, Philippa K. Browning

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    Photospheric motions may lead to twisted coronal magnetic fields which contain free energy that can be released by reconnection. Browning & Van der Linden suggested that such a relaxation event may be triggered by the onset of ideal kink instability. In the present work, we study the evolution of a twisted magnetic flux tube with zero net axial current following Hood etal. Based on the obtained magnetic and electric fields, proton and electron trajectories are calculated using the test-particle approach. We discuss resulting particle distributions and possible observational implications, for example, for small solar flares. © 2011. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.
    Original languageEnglish
    Article number101
    JournalAstrophysical Journal
    Volume729
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 10 Mar 2011

    Keywords

    • acceleration of particles
    • magnetic reconnection
    • Sun: flares

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