MAGNETIC RECONNECTION DRIVEN BY RECOMBINATION DURING COLLISION OF 2 CURRENT LOOPS

It is shown by using a 3-D resistive MHD simulation code, taking into account the recombination effect, that magnetic reconnection during co llision of two current loops can be enhanced by recombination. It is a lso shown that the temperature in the thin current sheet formed betwee n two loops increases from few to about thirty times larger than a cas e of no recombination, depending on both the plasma beta and the stren gth of recombination. The simulation results obtained here may be appl icable for a mechanism of chromospheric heating and as an explanation of X-ray bright points as well as solar flares observed in the chromos phere.