Liu, R., and Alexander, D., "Hard X-ray Emission in Kinking Filaments,"
preprint (2009).
ADS
Click on the image above for a larger version.
Here's a clear suggestion that flare hard X-rays might result from reconnection driven by a kink instability. Indeed the writhing motions of erupting filaments, and their clear tendency to heat up (rather than cool off, as might be expected from expansion) as they rise, has spawned a widely-held idea that the fundamental energy release of a solar flare comes from an instability that couuld be described as an ideal MHD instability. Reconnection would then happen when, where, and if it could. That seems to be the idea here, and why not?
March 18, 2009