Annihilation of Magnetic Islands at the Top of Solar Flare Loops

Abstract

Abstract The dynamics of magnetic reconnection in the solar current sheet (CS) is studied by high-resolution 2.5-dimensional MHD simulation. With the commencing of magnetic reconnection, a number of magnetic islands are formed intermittently and move quickly upward and downward along the CS. Upon collision with the semi-closed flux of the flare loops, the downflow islands cause a second reconnection with a rate comparable with that in the main CS. Though the time-integrated magnetic energy release is still dominated by the reconnection in the main CS, the second reconnection can release substantial magnetic energy, annihilating the main islands and generating secondary islands with various scales at the flare loop top. The distribution function of the flux of the secondary islands is found to follow a power law varying from f ψ ∼ ψ − 1 (small scale) to ψ −2 (large scale), which seems to be independent to background plasma β and thermal conduction (TC). However, the spatial scale and the strength of the termination shocks driven by the main reconnection outflows or islands decrease if β increases or if TC is included. We suggest that the annihilation of magnetic islands at the flare loop top, which is not included in the standard flare model, plays a nonnegligible role in releasing magnetic energy to heat flare plasma and accelerate particles.