Abstract
In the present work we aim to study particle acceleration in twisted coronal loops. For this purpose, an MHD model of magnetic reconnection in a linearly unstable twisted magnetic fluxtube is considered. Further, the electric and magnetic fields obtained in the MHD simulations are used to calculate proton and electron trajectories in the guiding-centre approximation. It is shown that particle acceleration in such a model is distributed rather uniformly along the coronal loop and the high-energy population remains generally neutral. It also follows from the model that the horizontal cross-section of the volume occupied by high-energy particles near the loop footpoints increases with time, which can be used as an observational proxy.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Arber, T.D., Longbottom, A.W., Gerrard, C.L., Milne, A.M.: 2001, J. Comput. Phys. 171, 151.
Aschwanden, M.J., Wuesler, J.P., Nitta, N.V., Lemen, J.R.: 2009, Solar Phys. 256, 3.
Barta, M., Buchner, J., Karlicky, M., Skala, J.: 2011, Astrophys. J. 737, 24.
Baty, H.: 2000, Astron. Astrophys. 353, 1074.
Baty, H., Heyvaerts, J.: 1996, Astron. Astrophys. 308, 935.
Brown, J.C., Turkmani, R., Kontar, E.P., MacKinnon, A.L., Vlahos, L.: 2009, Astron. Astrophys. 508, 993.
Browning, P.K., Van der Linden, R.A.M.: 2008, Astron. Astrophys. 400, 355.
Browning, P.K., Gerrard, C., Hood, A.W., Kevis, R., van der Linden, R.A.M.: 2008, Astron. Astrophys. 485, 837.
Buchner, J.: 2000, Space Sci. Rev. 124, 345.
Diakonov, S.V., Somov, B.V.: 1988, Solar Phys. 116, 119.
Drake, J.F., Swisdak, M., Schoeffler, K.M., Rogers, B.N., Kobayashi, S.: 2006, Geophys. Res. Lett. 33, 13105.
Galsgaard, K., Nordlund, A.: 1996, J. Geophys. Res. 101, 13445.
Gordovskyy, M., Browning, P.K.: 2010, Astrophys. J. 729, 101.
Gordovskyy, M., Browning, P.K., Vekstein, G.E.: 2010a, Astron. Astrophys. 519, A21.
Gordovskyy, M., Browning, P.K., Vekstein, G.E.: 2010b, Astrophys. J. 720, 1603.
Hood, A.W., Browning, P.K., van der Linden, R.A.M.: 2009, Astron. Astrophys. 506, 913.
Knight, J.W., Sturrock, P.A.: 1977, Astrophys. J. 218, 306.
Kuznetsova, M., Hesse, M., Winske, D.: 2000, J. Geophys. Res. 105, 7601.
Northrop, T.: 1963, The Adiabatic Motion of Charged Particles, Interscience, New York, 32.
Sergeev, V.A., Mitchell, D.G., Russell, C.T., Williams, D.J.: 1993, J. Geophys. Res. 98, 17345.
Turkmani, R., Cargill, P.J., Galsgaard, K., Vlahos, L., Isliker, H.: 2006, Astron. Astrophys. 449, 749.
Wood, P., Neukirch, T.: 2005, Solar Phys. 226, 73.
Zharkova, V.V., Gordovskyy, M.: 2005, Astron. Astrophys. 432, 1033.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gordovskyy, M., Browning, P.K. Magnetic Relaxation and Particle Acceleration in a Flaring Twisted Coronal Loop. Sol Phys 277, 299–316 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-011-9900-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-011-9900-9