Studying reconnection heating in the solar corona via gyrokinetic simulations

Reconnection turbulence, which here refers to turbulence generated by reconnecting current sheets, is a promising candidate for explaining the solar corona heating rate. Commonly, gyrokinetic simulations employ artificial mass ratio and β values to reduce numerical expense. Here, nonlinear 2D corona simulations are performed with the gyrokinetic code GENE at realistic β and hydrogen mass ratio to verify that the heating rate of the reconnection turbulence matches the observed solar corona heating rate, confirming extrapolations made in earlier studies. [Pueschel et al., ApJS 213, 30 (2014)]

To study how a more realistic, three-dimensional coronal loop geometry impacts reconnection rates and heating, a 3D half-torus geometry with field-line curvature and twist is set up in GENE. The magnetic potential at the footpoints of the coronal loop is set to zero. At realistic corona parameters, the growth rates have similar properties compared to the 2D case. We show preliminary nonlinear results of 3D reconnection turbulence and compare the heating rate with the 2D runs. Furthermore, we assess how three-dimensional flux ropes differ in their behavior -- particularly with respect to nanoflare merger processes -- compared with the 2D plasmoid dynamics reported in earlier work.