Abstract
Nuclear de-excitation γ-ray lines yield diagnostic information on ion acceleration in solar flares. Deductions using these lines of flare site ion distributions generally assume that all accelerated ion species have energy distributions of the same form. Particularly high total energy contents for fast ions result. Here we show how this assumption may be relaxed. Sufficiently precise measurements of a key set of lines may be combined to deduce separately the distributions of the fast protons and α-particles that produce the narrow de-excitation lines. We apply the resulting procedure to sets of line fluences obtained previously from SMM/GRS data. Interpretations of these data appear plausible in which comparatively small numbers of α particles are accelerated into energy distributions significantly harder than those found for protons.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Barkas, W. H. and Berger, M. J.: 1964, Tables of Energy Losses and Ranges of Heavy Charged Particles. NASA SP-3013.
Heyvaerts, J.: 1981, in E. R. Priest (ed.), Solar Flare Magnetohydrodynamics, Gordon and Breach, p. 429.
Hoyng, P., Brown, J. C., and van Beek, H. F.: 1976, Solar Phys. 48, 197.
Kozlovsky, B., Murphy, R. J., and Ramaty, R.: 2002, Astrophys. J. Supp. 141, 523.
Lin, R. P. and Hudson, H. S.: 1976, Solar Phys. 50, 153.
MacKinnon, A. L. and Toner, M. P.: 2003, Astron. Astrophys. 409, 745.
Mandzhavidze, N., Ramaty, R., and Kozlovsky, B.: 1997, Astrophys. J. 489, L99.
Meyer, J.-P.: 1992, in N. Prantzos et al. (eds.), Origin and Evolution of the Elements, Cambridge University Press, p. 26.
Miller, J. A. and Roberts, D. A.: 1995, Astrophys. J. 452, 912.
Murphy, R. J., Share, G. H., Letaw, J. R., and Forrest, D. J.: 1990, Astrophys. J. 358, 298.
Murphy, R. J., Ramaty, R., Kozlovsky, B., and Reames, D. V.: 1991, Astrophys. J. 371, 793.
Murphy, R. J., Share, G. H., Grove, J. E., Johnson, W. N., Kinzer, R. L., Kurfess, J. D., Strickman, M. S., and Jung, G. V.: 1997, Astrophys. J. 490, 883.
Ramaty, R.: 1986, in P. A. Sturrock (ed.), Physics of the Sun. Volume 2,Reidel, Dordrecht, p. 291.
Ramaty, R., Kozlovsky, B., and Lingenfelter, R. E.: 1979, Astrophys. J. Supp. 40, 487.
Ramaty, R., Mandzhavidze, N., and Kozlovsky, B.: 1996, In: High Energy Solar Physics. p. 172.
Ramaty, R., Mandzhavidze, N., Kozlovsky, B., and Murphy, R. J.: 1995, Astrophys. J. 455, L193.
Reames, D. V., Barbier, L. M., von Rosenvinge, T. T., Mason, G. M., Mazur, J. E., and Dwyer, J. R.: 1997, Astrophys. J. 483, 515.
Schmelz, J. T., Saba, J. L. R., Ghosh, D., and Strong, K. T.: 1996, Astrophys. J. 452, 519.
Share, G. H. and Murphy, R. J.: 1995, Astrophys. J. 452, 933.
Share, G. H. and Murphy, R. J.: 1997, Astrophys. J. 485, 409.
Share, G. H. and Murphy, R. J.: 1998, Astrophys. J. 508, 876.
Share, G. H., Murphy, R. J., Skibo, J. G., Smith, D. M., Hudson, H. S., Lin, R. P., Shih, A. Y., Dennis, B. R., Schwartz, R. A., and Kozlovsky, B.: 2003, Astrophys. J. 595, L85.
Smith, D. M., Share, G. H., Murphy, R. J., Schwartz, R. A., Shih, A. Y., and Lin, R. P.: 2003, Astrophys. J. 595, L81.
van Hollebeke, M. A. I., McDonald, F. B., and Meyer, J. P.: 1990, Astrophys. J. Supp. 73, 285.
Vilmer, N. and MacKinnon, A. L.: 2003, In: K.-L. Klein (ed.): Energy Conversion and Particle Acceleration in the Solar Corona, Springer, p. 127.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Toner, M.P., MacKinnon, A.L. Do fast protons and α particles have the same energy distributions in solar flares?. Sol Phys 223, 155–168 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-004-5168-7
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-004-5168-7