Stereoscopic Observation of Slipping Reconnection in A Double Candle-Flame-Shaped Solar Flare

The 2011 January 28 M1.4 flare exhibits two side-by-side candle-flame-shaped flare loop systems underneath a larger cusp-shaped structure during the decay phase, as observed at the northwestern solar limb by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The northern loop system brightens following the initiation of the flare within the southern loop system, but all three cusp-shaped structures are characterized by ~ 10 MK temperatures, hotter than the arch-shaped loops underneath. The "Ahead" satellite of the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) provides a top view, in which the post-flare loops brighten sequentially, with one end fixed while the other apparently slipping eastward. By performing stereoscopic reconstruction of the post-flare loops in EUV and mapping out magnetic connectivities, we found that the footpoints of the post-flare loops are slipping along the footprint of a hyperbolic flux tube (HFT) separating the two loop systems, and that the reconstructed loops share similarity with the magnetic field lines that are traced starting from the same HFT footprint, where the field lines are relatively flexible. These results argue strongly in favor of slipping magnetic reconnection at the HFT. The slipping reconnection was likely triggered by the flare and manifested as propagative dimmings before the loop slippage is observed. It may contribute to the late-phase peak in Fe XVI 33.5 nm, which is even higher than its main-phase counterpart, and may also play a role in the density and temperature asymmetry observed in the northern loop system through heat conduction.