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Heliospheric Transport of Neutron-Decay Protons

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Abstract

We report on new simulations of the transport of energetic protons originating from the decay of energetic neutrons produced in solar flares. Because the neutrons are fast-moving but insensitive to the solar wind magnetic field, the decay protons are produced over a wide region of space, and they should be detectable by current instruments over a broad range of longitudes for many hours after a sufficiently large gamma-ray flare. Spacecraft closer to the Sun are expected to see orders-of-magnitude higher intensities than those at the Earth-Sun distance. The current solar cycle should present an excellent opportunity to observe neutron-decay protons with multiple spacecraft over different heliographic longitudes and distances from the Sun.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by NASA under grants NNX08AI11G and NNX11AO75G, and subcontract SA2715-26309 from UC Berkeley under NASA contract NAS5-03131. We appreciate the assistance of R.A. Leske and C.M.S. Cohen, and discussions with R. Murphy. We also thank the anonymous reviewer for a number of helpful comments and suggestions.

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  1. California Institute of Technology, Mail Code 290-17, Pasadena, CA, 91125, USA

    E. E. Chollet & R. A. Mewaldt

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  1. E. E. Chollet
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  2. R. A. Mewaldt
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Correspondence to R. A. Mewaldt.

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The Sun 360

Guest Editors: Bernhard Fleck, Bernd Heber, and Angelos Vourlidas

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Chollet, E.E., Mewaldt, R.A. Heliospheric Transport of Neutron-Decay Protons. Sol Phys 281, 449–459 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-012-0082-x

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