The Search for Plasmoids in a Solar Flare: How can Linear Polarization help us?

Plasmoids have long been predicted to form within the magnetic reconnection process of many astrophysical environments, accelerating the energy release process via the breakdown of a current sheet to progressively smaller scales. However, the presence of plasmoids within a reconnection environment, particularly that of solar flare current sheets, have yet to be proven observationally. Using coronal Fe XIII linear polarization measurements of the most-published solar flare of all time, we can probe the unresolvable current sheet environment in search of evidence for plasmoids. This work, completed with data from the 20cm diameter CoMP instrument, paves the way for further discoveries from much larger solar telescopes, including the National Science Foundation’s 4m Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) and Indian Space Research Organisation’s Aditya-L1 mission.