Abstract
Shock waves produced by impulsively driven reconnection may be important during flares or during the emergence of magnetic flux from the photosphere into the corona. Here we investigate such shock waves by carrying out numerical experiments using two-dimensional magneto-hydrodynamics. The results of the numerical experiments imply that there are three different categories of shocks associated with impulsively driven reconnection: (1) fast-mode, blast waves which rapidly propagate away from the reconnection site; (2) slow-mode, Petschek shocks which are attached to the reconnection site; and (3) fast-mode, termination shocks which terminate the plasma jets flowing out from the reconnection site. Fast-mode blast waves are a common feature of many flare models, but the Petschek shocks and jet termination shocks are specific to reconnection models. These two different types of reconnection shocks might contribute to chromospheric ablation and energetic particle acceleration in flares.
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Forbes, T.G. Shocks produced by impulsively driven reconnection. Sol Phys 117, 97–121 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00148576
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00148576