Long citation

At the beginning of her career Philippa Browning devoted her research activity to understanding the mechanism of solar coronal heating. In 1991 she systematically analyzed possible mechanisms for coronal energy transfer, including magnetic reconnection, instabilities, and relaxation of twisted magnetic flux tubes containing free magnetic energy. Building on this foundation, in 2008 she demonstrated that ideal kink instabilities in twisted coronal flux tubes generate current sheets and trigger rapid magnetic reconnection, releasing energy that heats the plasma. These simulations quantified the relationship between initial current profiles and energy release, providing a rigorous theoretical basis for the nanoflare heating hypothesis and linking magnetic relaxation processes to observable solar phenomena. Subsequently, in collaboration with Mykola Gordovskyy, she demonstrated that this release of magnetic energy in a twisted coronal loop could also provide very effective acceleration of charged particles. She also made significant contributions to the understanding of particle acceleration in two- and three-dimensional magnetic reconnection sites in the solar corona. In particular in she elucidated the mechanisms that allow particle acceleration in 2D configurations; while in 2005 she extended these results to 3D configurations, relevant to solar flares, examining particle dynamics around 3D magnetic null points. Since the beginning of her career she has been able to unveil the common features of reconnection processes occurring in astrophysical and laboratory plasmas, establishing herself as a reference for both communities. Indeed in 1992 she led the theoretical modelling of the SPHEX spheromak device, elucidating its relaxation mechanisms, associated with the saturation of large-scale kink instabilities of the central column of magnetic field, and their role in helicity injection.

More recently, she extended these insights also to tokamak plasmas, investigating the similarities between edge localised modes (ELMs) and solar flares. In particular she contributed to the development of a model based on relaxation theory to predict ELM sizes. Last but not least, through her teaching, she has inspired many students, and has supervised a large number of them throughout their academic development.