From solar and stellar flares to coronal heating: Theory and observations of how magnetic reconnection regulates coronal conditions

There is currently no explanation of why the corona has the temperature and density it has. We present a model that explains how the dynamics of magnetic reconnection regulates the conditions in the corona. A bifurcation in magnetic reconnection at a critical state enforces an upper bound on the coronal temperature for a given density. We present observational evidence from 107 flares in 37 Sun-like stars that stellar coronae are near this critical state. The model may be important to self-organized criticality models of the solar corona.