Resistive magnetohydrodynamic simulations of a coronal current sheet driven by an asymmetric wave-like perturbation reveal how thermal conduction and radiative cooling alter forced magnetic reconnection. Thermal conduction advances the onset of the tearing instability and increases the reconnection rate and plasmoid speeds, whereas radiative cooling delays fragmentation; the initial thinning of the sheet, however, is independent of energy losses. Students learn how competing energy-transport mechanisms govern the timing and energetics of reconnection and plasmoid formation in solar plasmas.
Magnetic reconnection in the solar corona releases stored magnetic energy by reconfiguring field lines at thin current sheets, which can become tearing-unstable and fragment into plasmoids. Using res…