Collisionless Three‐dimensional Reconnection in Impulsive Solar Flares

Abstract

Two subclasses of impulsive solar flares, observed with the Hard X-Ray Telescope (HXT) onboard Yohkoh, have been discovered by Sakao et al. The two subclasses can be characterized as more impulsive (MI) and less impulsive (LI) flares, the former having a shorter total duration of the impulsive phase in the hard X-ray emission than the latter. We assume that in both subclasses, the collisionless three-dimensional reconnection process occurs at the separator with a longitudinal magnetic field. The high-temperature turbulent-current sheet (HTTCS), located along the separator, generates accelerated particles and fast outflows of (T ≥ 30 MK) plasma. Powerful anomalous heat-conductive fluxes along the reconnected field lines maintain a high temperature in the superhot plasma. The difference between the LI and MI flares presumably appears because the footpoint separation (the distance between two brightest hard X-ray sources) increases in time in the LI flares, but decreases in the MI flares. According to our model, in the LI flares the three-dimensional reconnection process accompanies an increase in the longitudinal magnetic field at the separator. In contrast, in the MI flares the reconnection proceeds with a decrease of the longitudinal field; hence, the reconnection rate is higher in the MI flares. Since reconnection in the MI flares proceeds with a decrease of the longitudinal field, the reconnected field lines become shorter in this process. As the reconnected lines become shorter, accelerated electron beams arrive at the upper chromosphere faster. So, in the MI flares chromospheric evaporation begins earlier than in the LI flares. The evaporation process driven by accelerated electron beams generates upflows of warm (T ≤ 10 MK) plasma that interacts with downflows of superhot plasma and can switch off the accumulation of superhot plasma in the MI flares during the impulsive phase. In the LI flares, however, an observable amount of superhot plasma is accumulated even during the impulsive phase. Moreover, since the cooling timescales increase with the length of the reconnected field lines, our argument for the association of superhot plasma with longer lines may remain valid to a reasonable extent even if the chromospheric evaporated plasma mixes with the reconnected outflow and superhot temperatures are reached in this mixture. Further analysis of the Yohkoh data obtained simultaneously with the Hard and Soft X-Ray Telescopes and the bent crystal spectrometer (BCS) is necessary to distinguish the superhot components of chromospheric and coronal origins in different classes of flares as well as at different phases of their development.