  Magnetic loops filled with hot plasma are the main building blocks of the
solar corona. Usually they have lengths of the order of the barometric scale
height in the corona that is 50 Mm. Previously it has been suggested that
miniature versions of hot loops exist. These would have lengths of only 1 Mm
barely protruding from the chromosphere and spanning across just one granule in
the photosphere. Such short loops are well established at transition region
temperatures (0.1 MK), and we investigate if such miniature loops also exist at
coronal temperatures (>1 MK). We used extreme UV imaging (EUV) observations
from the High-resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C) at an unprecedented spatial
resolution of 0.3" to 0.4". Together with EUV imaging and magnetogram data from
the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and X-Ray Telescope (XRT) data from Hinode
we investigated the spatial, temporal and thermal evolution of small loop-like
structures in the solar corona above a plage region close to an active region
and compared this to a moss area within the active region. We find that the
size, motion and temporal evolution of the loop-like features are consistent
with photospheric motions, suggesting a close connection to the photospheric
magnetic field. Aligned magnetograms show that one of their endpoints is rooted
at a magnetic concentration. Their thermal structure, as revealed together with
the X-ray observations, shows significant differences to moss-like features.
Considering different scenarios, these features are most probably miniature
versions of hot loops rooted at magnetic concentrations at opposite sides of a
granule in small emerging magnetic loops (or flux tubes).
