Physical Processes in Solar Flares

Solar flares are very complex electromagnetic phenomena of a cataclysmic nature. Particles are accelerated to very high velocities and a variety of physical processes happen inside and outside flares. These processes can be studied by a large number of techniques from Earth and from space. The aim is to discover the physics behind solar flares. This goal is complicated because information about the flare mechanism can be obtained only in an indirect way by studying the secondary effects.
This book provides three stages in the solution of the solar flare problem. Chapter one describes the connection between observational data and theoretical concepts, where it is stressed that next to investigating flares, the related non-stationary large-scale phenomena must be studied as well. The second chapter deals with secondary physical processes, in particular the study of high-temperature plasma dynamics during impulsive heating. The last chapter presents a model built on the knowledge of the two previous chapters and it constructs a theory of non-neutral turbulent current sheets.
The author believes that this model will help to solve the problem of solar flares.
For solar physicists, plasma physicists, high-energy particle physicists.

1 / The Present State of the Solar Problem.- 1.1.Observed phenomena and the energetics of solar flares.- 1.2.Physical concepts of the nature of flares.- 1.3.Flare-induced physical processes in the solar atmosphere.- 1.4.The solar flare problem.- 2 / Chromospheric Heating: The Mechanism Producing High-Temperature Plasma in Solar Flares.- 2.1.Impulsive heating by accelerated electrons.- 2.2.Impulsive heating by intense heat flows.- 2.3.Chromospheric heating by X-ray emission.- 3 / Magnetic Reconnection and Energy Release in Solar Flares.- 3.1.Reconnection as a heating mechanism for X-ray coronal loops.- 3.2.The natural high-temperature turbulent current sheet.- 3.3.The high-temperature turbulent current sheet with a small transverse magnetic field.- 3.4.The current sheet structure under the fast and slow reconnection regimes.- 3.5.Stabilization of tearing instability in current sheets on the Sun.- 3.6.The effect of the longitudinal magnetic field in the current sheets on the Sun.- Conclusion.- References.