Plasma heating by forced magnetic reconnection (Q1574494)

A model of forced magnetic reconnection in a force-free magnetic field is considered for the magnetic energy release during current sheet reconnection. The authors find that the magnetic energy release becomes very large for the field near the marginal tearing stability. The persistent plasma heating provided by ongoing external driving and internal reconnetion is examined, and a typical relaxation-type dependence on driving frequency is obtained. The authors demonstrate that the dissipation becomes most efficient when time-scales of driving and reconnection are comparable. Implications of the results for solar coronal heating are discussed.