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Register a new userEffect of collisions and magnetic convergence on electron acceleration and transport in reconnecting twisted solar flare loops
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We study a model of particle acceleration coupled with an MHD model of magnetic reconnection in unstable twisted coronal loops. The kink instability leads to the formation of helical currents with strong parallel electric fields resulting in electron acceleration. The motion of electrons in the electric and magnetic fields of the reconnecting loop is investigated using a test-particle approach taking into account collisional scattering. We discuss the effects of Coulomb collisions and magnetic convergence near loop footpoints on the spatial distribution and energy spectra of high-energy electron populations and possible implications on the hard X-ray emission in solar flares.
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Twisted coronal loops should be ubiquitous in the solar corona. Twisted magnetic fields contain excess magnetic energy, which can be released during magnetic reconnection, causing solar flares. The aim of this work is to investigate magnetic reconnection, and particle acceleration and transport in kink-unstable twisted coronal loops, with a focus on the effects of resistivity, loop geometry and atmospheric stratification. Another aim is to perform forward-modelling of bremsstrahlung emission and determine the structure of hard X-ray sources. We use a combination of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) and test-particle methods. First, the evolution of the kinking coronal loop is considered using resistive MHD model, incorporating atmospheric stratification and loop curvature. Then, the obtained electric and magnetic fields and density distributions are used to calculate electron and proton trajectories using a guiding-centre approximation, taking into account Coulomb collisions. It is shown that electric fields in twisted coronal loops can effectively accelerate protons and electrons to energies up to 10 MeV. High-energy particles have hard, nearly power-law energy spectra. The volume occupied by high-energy particles demonstrates radial expansion, which results in the expansion of the visible hard X-ray loop and a gradual increase in hard X-ray footpoint area. Synthesised hard X-ray emission reveals strong footpoint sources and the extended coronal source, whose intensity strongly depends on the coronal loop density.
Magnetic reconnection and particle acceleration due to the kink instability in twisted coronal loops can be a viable scenario for confined solar flares. Detailed investigation of this phenomenon requires reliable methods for observational detection of magnetic twist in solar flares, which may not be possible solely through extreme UV and soft X-ray thermal emission. Polarisation of microwave emission in flaring loops can be used as one of the detection criteria. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of magnetic twist in flaring coronal loops on the polarisation of gyro-synchrotron microwave (GSMW) emission, and determine whether it could provide a means for magnetic twist detection. We use time-dependent magnetohydrodynamic and test-particle models developed using LARE3D and GCA codes to investigate twisted coronal loops relaxing following the kink-instability. Synthetic GSMW emission maps (I and V Stokes components) are calculated using GX simulator. It is found that flaring twisted coronal loops produce GSMW radiation with a gradient of circular polarisation across the loop. However, these patterns may be visible only for a relatively short period of time due to fast magnetic reconfiguration after the instability. Their visibility also depends on the orientation and position of the loop on solar disk. Typically, it would be difficult to see these characteristic polarisation pattern in a twisted loop seen from the top (close to the centre of the solar disk), but easier in a twisted loop seen from the side (i.e. observed very close to the limb).
Plasma turbulence is thought to be associated with various physical processes involved in solar flares, including magnetic reconnection, particle acceleration and transport. Using Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager ({it RHESSI}) observations and the X-ray visibility analysis, we determine the spatial and spectral distributions of energetic electrons for a flare (GOES M3.7 class, April 14, 2002 23$:$55 UT), which was previously found to be consistent with a reconnection scenario. It is demonstrated that because of the high density plasma in the loop, electrons have to be continuously accelerated about the loop apex of length $sim 2times 10^9$cm and width $sim 7times 10^8$cm. Energy dependent transport of tens of keV electrons is observed to occur both along and across the guiding magnetic field of the loop. We show that the cross-field transport is consistent with the presence of magnetic turbulence in the loop, where electrons are accelerated, and estimate the magnitude of the field line diffusion coefficient for different phases of the flare. The energy density of magnetic fluctuations is calculated for given magnetic field correlation lengths and is larger than the energy density of the non-thermal electrons. The level of magnetic fluctuations peaks when the largest number of electrons is accelerated and is below detectability or absent at the decay phase. These hard X-ray observations provide the first observational evidence that magnetic turbulence governs the evolution of energetic electrons in a dense flaring loop and is suggestive of their turbulent acceleration.
The aim of this study is to generate maps of the hard X-ray emission produced by energetic electrons in a solar flare and compare them with observations. The ultimate goal is to test the viability of the combined MHD/test-particle approach for data-driven modelling of active events in the solar corona and their impact on the heliosphere. Based on an MHD model of X-class solar flare observed on the 8th of September 2017, we calculate trajectories of a large number of electrons and protons using the relativistic guiding-centre approach. Using the obtained particle trajectories, we deduce the spatial and energy distributions of energetic electrons and protons, and calculate bremsstrahlung hard X-ray emission using the thin target approximation. Our approach predicts some key characteristics of energetic particles in the considered flare, including the size and location of the acceleration region, energetic particle trajectories and energy spectra. Most importantly, the hard X-ray bremsstrahlung intensity maps predicted by the model are in a good agreement with those observed by RHESSI. Furthermore, the locations of proton and electron precipitation appear to be close to the sources of helioseismic response detected in this flare. Therefore, the adopted approach can be used for observationally-driven modelling of individual solar flares, including manifestations of energetic particles in the corona, as well as inner heliosphere.
While the exact acceleration mechanism of energetic particles during solar flares is (as yet) unknown, magnetic reconnection plays a key role both in the release of stored magnetic energy of the solar corona and the magnetic restructuring during a flare. Recent work has shown that special field lines, called separators, are common sites of reconnection in 3D numerical experiments. To date, 3D separator reconnection sites have received little attention as particle accelerators. We investigate the effectiveness of separator reconnection as a particle acceleration mechanism for electrons and protons. We study the particle acceleration using a relativistic guiding-centre particle code in a time-dependent kinematic model of magnetic reconnection at a separator. The effect upon particle behaviour of initial position, pitch angle and initial kinetic energy are examined in detail, both for specific (single) particle examples and for large distributions of initial conditions. The separator reconnection model contains several free parameters and we study the effect of changing these parameters upon particle acceleration, in particular in view of the final particle energy ranges which agree with observed energy spectra.
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