Self-Regulation of Solar Coronal Heating via the Collisionless Reconnection Condition
Abstract
Description
I present a novel view on the problem of solar coronal heating. In my picture, coronal heating should be viewed as a self-regulating process that works to keep the coronal plasma marginally collisionless. The self-regulating mechanism is based on the interplay between two effects: (1) Plasma density controls coronal energy release via the transition between the slow collisional Sweet-Parker regime and the fast collisionless reconnection regime; (2) In turn, coronal energy release through reconnection leads to an increase in the ambient plasma density via chromospheric evaporation, which temporarily shuts off any subsequent reconnection involving the newly-reconnected loops.
3 pages; Proceedings of "Coronae of Stars and Accretion Disks", Bonn, December 2006, to be published in Memorie della Societa Astronomica Italiana
3 pages; Proceedings of "Coronae of Stars and Accretion Disks", Bonn, December 2006, to be published in Memorie della Societa Astronomica Italiana