Heating and cooling of coronal loops with turbulent suppression of parallel heat conduction

TL;DR

This study models the cooling of solar coronal loops considering turbulent suppression of heat conduction, providing insights into the heat input duration and turbulence scale necessary to match observed flare cooling times.

Contribution

It introduces an analytical model of coronal loop cooling incorporating turbulent heat conduction suppression, aligning theoretical results with solar flare observations.

Findings

Turbulent mean free-path $\\lambda_T$ is constrained by observed cooling times.

Significant heat input duration is necessary to reproduce observed peak temperatures.

Turbulent suppression limits classical conduction's role in loop cooling.

Abstract

Using the "enthalpy-based thermal evolution of loops" (EBTEL) model, we investigate the hydrodynamics of the plasma in a flaring coronal loop in which heat conduction is limited by turbulent scattering of the electrons that transport the thermal heat flux. The EBTEL equations are solved analytically in each of the two (conduction-dominated and radiation-dominated) cooling phases. Comparison of the results with typical observed cooling times in solar flares shows that the turbulent mean free-path $\lambda_T$ lies in a range corresponding to a regime in which classical (collision-dominated) conduction plays at most a limited role. We also consider the magnitude and duration of the heat input that is necessary to account for the enhanced values of temperature and density at the beginning of the cooling phase and for the observed cooling times. We find through numerical modeling that in order to produce a peak temperature $\simeq 1.5 \times 10^7$~K and a 200~s cooling time consistent with observations, the flare heating profile must extend over a significant period of time; in particular, its lingering role must be taken into consideration in any description of the cooling phase. Comparison with observationally-inferred values of post-flare loop temperatures, densities, and cooling times thus leads to useful constraints on both the magnitude and duration of the magnetic energy release in the loop, as well as on the value of the turbulent mean free-path $\lambda_T$.