title: An overview of flux braiding experiments.
abstract: In a number of papers dating back to the 1970s, Parker has hypothesized that, in a perfectly ideal environment, complex photospheric motions acting on a continuous magnetic field will result in the formation of tangential discontinuities corresponding to singular currents. I review direct numerical simulations of the problem and find that the evidence points to a tendency for thin but finite-thickness current layers to form, with thickness exponentially decreasing in time. Given a finite resistivity, these layers will eventually become important and cause the dynamical process of energy release. Accordingly, a body of work focuses on evolution under continual boundary driving. The coronal volume evolves into a highly dynamic but statistically steady state where quantities have a temporally and spatially intermittent nature and where the Poynting flux and dissipation are decoupled on short time scales. Although magnetic braiding is found to be a promising coronal heating mechanism, much work remains to determine its true viability. Some suggestions for future study are offered.
authors.affiliation: Division of Mathematics, Fulton Building, University of Dundee, Dundee DD1 4HN, UK antonia@maths.dundee.ac.uk.
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Wilmot-Smith
keywords: corona; magnetic fields; magnetic reconnection; the Sun