Anomalous Cooling of Coronal Loops with Turbulent Suppression of Thermal Conduction

Abstract

We investigate the impact of turbulent suppression of parallel heat conduction on the cooling of post-flare coronal loops. Depending on the value of the mean free path $\lambda_T$ associated with the turbulent scattering process, we identify four main cooling scenarios. The overall temperature evolution, from an initial temperature in excess of $10^7$~K, is modeled in each case, highlighting the evolution of the dominant cooling mechanism throughout the cooling process. Comparison with observed cooling times allows the value of $\lambda_T$ to be constrained, and interestingly this range corresponds to situations where collision-dominated conduction plays a very limited role, or even no role at all, in the cooling of post-flare coronal loops.