Magnetic Reconnection in the Lower Solar Atmosphere

We report on recent efforts to self-consistently model magnetic reconnection processes in weakly ionized plasmas, with a focus on the solar chromosphere. The solar chromosphere is a complex and dynamic boundary layer of the solar atmosphere where interdependence of the magnetic field evolution, radiation transport, plasma reactivity, and dissipation mechanisms make it a particularly difficult system to model and understand. Past studies have focused on the micro-physics of multi-fluid magnetic reconnection at magnetic nulls^[1]. Here, the previous work is extended by considering a range of spatial scales and plasma β values in a configuration with component magnetic reconnection^[2]. We show that in all cases the non-equilibrium reactivity of a weakly ionized plasma is important for determining the properties of a reconnection region, explore current sheet stability to secondary instabilities, and speculate as to the possible observables of magnetic reconnection in the lower solar atmosphere.

[1] Leake, et al, ApJ 760 (2012); Leake, et al, PoP 20 (2013); Murphy & Lukin, ApJ 805 (2015).

[2] L. Ni, et al, ApJ 852 (2018); L. Ni, et al, PoP 25 (2018).