Two-Current-Sheet Reconnection Model of Interdependent Flare and Coronal Mass Ejection

Time-dependent resistive magnetohydrodynamic simulations are carried out to study a flux rope eruption caused by magnetic reconnection with implication in coexistent flare-CME (coronal mass ejection) events. An early result obtained in a recent analysis of double catastrophe of a flux rope system is used as the initial condition, in which an isolated flux rope coexists with two current sheets: a vertical one below and a transverse one above the flux rope. The flux rope erupts when reconnection takes place in the current sheets, and the flux rope dynamics depends on the reconnection sequence in the two current sheets. Three cases are discussed: reconnection occurs (1) simultaneously in the two current sheets, (2) first in the transverse one and then in the vertical, and (3) in an order opposite to case 2. Such a two-current-sheet reconnection exhibits characteristics of both magnetic breakout for CME initiation and standard flare model. We argue that both breakout-like and tether-cutting reconnections may be important for CME eruptions and associated surface activities.
10 pages, 4 figures, Accepted for publication in ApJ 2006