Particle Acceleration and Heating in a Turbulent Solar Corona

TL;DR

This paper explores how turbulence, magnetic reconnection, and shocks in the solar corona lead to particle heating and acceleration through combined stochastic and systematic processes, driven by the turbulent solar atmosphere.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of turbulent reconnection in the solar corona and explains its role in particle heating and acceleration.

Findings

Turbulent reconnection drives coronal heating.

Particle acceleration results from combined stochastic and systematic processes.

Turbulence in the solar atmosphere is externally driven by the convection zone.

Abstract

Turbulence, magnetic reconnection, and shocks can be present in explosively unstable plasmas, forming a new electromagnetic environment, which we call here turbulent reconnection, and where spontaneous formation of current sheets takes place. We will show that the heating and the acceleration of particles is the result of the synergy of stochastic (second order Fermi) and systematic (first order Fermi) acceleration inside fully developed turbulence. The solar atmosphere is magnetically coupled to a turbulent driver (the convection zone), therefore the appearance of turbulent reconnection in the solar atmosphere is externally driven. Turbulent reconnection, once it is established in the solar corona, drives the coronal heating and particle acceleration.