Energy Conversion and Transport During Flare Reconnection in a CME Model

Large-scale solar eruptions, which are observed as flares, erupting prominences/filaments, and coronal mass ejections (CMEs), are powered by the free (excess) magnetic energy that is stored prior to eruption in current-carrying (sheared/twisted) magnetic fields. During an eruption, some of this magnetic energy is released and converted into kinetic energy in the form of thermal/non-thermal particle energy and bulk flow energy. It is well established that magnetic reconnection is the key driver of this energy release and conversion. However, the detailed physical conditions that determine the partitioning and distribution of the released energy are not yet well understood. Following the seminal work by Birn et al. (2009), we employ magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations to study the energy conversion and transport due to reconnection in a flare current sheet, using an adiabatic energy equation. We extend the work by Birn et al. in three different ways. First, we consider a model in which the flare current layer is self-consistently formed by the eruption of a magnetic flux rope that evolves into a CME. Second, we incorporate the effect of reconnection between the legs of the flux rope. Third, we extend the analysis of the energy transport (and plasma heating) to the CME. In this presentation we summarize our main results and briefly discuss the next step, which will be the extension of our model to thermodynamic MHD.