Abstract
Magnetic reconnection is a topological rearrangement of magnetic field
that converts magnetic energy to plasma energy. γ-ray bursts,
astrophysical flares, jets in the solar atmosphere and sawtooth crashes in
laboratory plasmas may all be powered by reconnection. Reconnection is
essential for the solar/stellar dynamo and the large-scale restructuring
known as magnetic self-organization. I will briefly review reconnection
theory and discuss the evidence for it. Recent advances in observational
solar physics have revealed that reconnection, once primarily attributed
to the relatively infrequent large-scale solar flare phenomena, may be a
dominant process ongoing in the lower solar atmosphere with respect to the
formation of highly frequent small-scale spicule-like activity.