The bright loop-top kernels in Yohkoh X-ray flares

Jakimiec, J., M. Tomczak, R. Falewicz, K. J. H. Phillips, and A. Fludra, The bright loop-top kernels in Yohkoh X-ray flares, A&A, 334, 1112-1122 (1998) (ADS)

The cartoon

(click on the image for a larger version)

Suppose the coronal field lines in a loop became really tangled up at the loop top? So tangled that a loss cone for fast electrons was not even defined? Could one then not trap particles efficiently and thereby explain the peculiar loop-top structures seen in SXT images? This idea of turbulent trapping occurs frequently; see for example the Emslie-Vlahos cartoon.

      The unique cartoon here illustrates the interface between laminar field lines in a flare loop, intersecting a turbulent region at its top. Of course the field line loses its meaning in the turbulent region, and so the external connectivity would fluctuate in time at the microscopic level.

Date: 2007 May 08

Update: 2019 November 24