Programme by Session

Zipper reconnection has been proposed as a mechanism for creating most of the twist in the flux tubes that are present prior to eruptive flares and coronal mass ejections.
In this contribution, I will describe our results from a simple initial numerical experiment on this new regime of reconnection, where two initially untwisted parallel flux tubes are sheared and reconnect to form a large twisted flux rope. I will expand on several aspects of this work which have already been published in Threlfall et al. 2018, Solar Physics, 293, 98. I will also explore more recent improvements to the model and how these changes affect our previous findings. Finally, I will also describe some of our (ongoing) attempts to expand this initial concept to include further additional flux tubes.