Magnetic reconnection model for \(X\)-ray flare loop interaction (Q1905360)

In order to explain how magnetic reconnection changes the topology of the magnetic field and converts the magnetic energy into the plasma energy in solar flares, the authors study the nonlinear interaction of a MHD medium and transverse plasmons. The model is based on the two-fluid nonlinear description of the medium; two time scales are presented due to large difference between the electron and ion oscillation frequencies. The nonlinear effects are investigated by splitting slow and fast components in physical quantities, and the averages of fast time scale components vanish compared to slow time scale ones. The results can be summarized as follows. By the interaction of two \(X\)-ray flare loops, the plasma and the magnetic flux are compressed towards a current sheet from both sides by the Lorentz force. During this compression the magnetic energy is dissipated: it is converted to the kinetic energy of the particles heating the plasma, and to the radiation via the Ohm's law, thereby creating a dissipation layer and a resistive instability. In the dissipation layer the processes are governed by the relations among the compressing factors, by the hot plasma physics and by the creation of the radiation, these latter ones tending to widen the current sheet. To arrive at a rapid energy conversion, a local eruptive instability is necessary from where the dissipation products can be thrown out at a fast enough rate (e.g. \(X\)-rays). This procedure can be followed by the scenario when the high frequency emission forms an electromagnetic solitary wave caused by a modulation instability in a turbulent plasma. The ion-acoustic turbulence, however, is characterized by an anomalous (non-Coulombian) conductivity. The calculations show that the results are in agreement with the observations obtained by the Yohkoh spacecraft.