An interacting loop model for solar flare bursts

Abstract

A schematic model is presented which attempts to explain the quasi-periodic behavior (on a timescale of less than or approximately equal to 10 s) frequency observed in solar hard X-ray bursts. It is shown how, as a result of the strong heating produced during a solar flare burst, the local gas pressure can transiently attain very large values in regions corresponding to the upper preflare chromosphere. The effectiveness of the surrounding magnetic field at confining this high pressure plasma is therefore reduced and the flaring loop becomes free to expand laterally. In so doing it may drive magnetic field lines into neighboring, non-flaring, loops in the same active region, causing magnetic reconnection to take place and triggering another flare burst. The features of this interacting loop model are found to be in good agreement with the energetics and time structure of flare-associated solar hard X-ray bursts.