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Register a new userAnalysis of the Impulsive Phase of Solar Flares with Pass 8 LAT data
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We show the results of analyses performed on high-energy gamma-ray emission during the impulsive phase of solar flares detected by the LAT using Pass 8 data. We compare results obtained with Pass 7 and Pass 8 data sets, using both LAT Low Energy and standard data classes. With a dedicated event selection, Pass 8 allows standard analysis during the impulsive phase: it has been designed to be less susceptible to pile-up in the LAT Anti-Coincidence Detector caused by the intense hard X-ray emission at early times.
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The Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) is the most sensitive instrument ever deployed in space for observing gamma-ray emission >100 MeV. This sensitivity has enabled the LAT to detect gamma-ray emission from the Sun during quiescent periods from pions produced by cosmic-ray protons interacting in the solar atmosphere and from cosmic-ray electrons interacting with solar optical photons. The LAT has detected high-energy gamma-ray emission associated with GOES M-class and X-class X-ray flares accompanied by coronal mass ejections and solar energetic particle events. In a number of cases, LAT has detected gamma rays with energies up to several hundreds of MeV during the impulsive phase and gamma rays up to GeV energies sustained for several hours after the impulsive phase. This presentation focuses on observations in the impulsive emission phase in solar flares, including the modest GOES M2-class flare at SOL2010-06-12T0057 and more recent detections, such as the bright X-class flares of March 2012.
The flux of positrons and electrons ($e^+ + e^-$) has been measured by the $Fermi$ Large Area Telescope (LAT) in the energy range between 7 GeV and 2 TeV. We discuss a number of interpretations of Pass 8 $Fermi$-LAT $e^+ + e^-$ spectrum, combining electron and positron emission from supernova remnants (SNRs) and pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe), or produced by the collision of cosmic rays with the interstellar medium. We find that the $Fermi$-LAT spectrum is compatible with the sum of electrons from a smooth SNR population, positrons from cataloged PWNe, and a secondary component. If we include in our analysis constraints from AMS-02 positron spectrum, we obtain a slightly worse fit to the $e^+ + e^-$ $Fermi$-LAT spectrum, depending on the propagation model. As an additional scenario, we replace the smooth SNR component within 0.7 kpc with the { individual sources} found in Greens catalog of Galactic SNRs. We find that separate consideration of far and near sources helps to reproduce the $e^+ + e^-$ $Fermi$-LAT spectrum. However, we show that the fit degrades when the radio constraints on the positron emission from Vela SNR (which is the main contributor at high energies) are taken into account. We find that a break in the power-law injection spectrum at about 100 GeV can also reproduce the measured $e^+ + e^-$ spectrum} and, among the cosmic-ray propagation models that we consider, no reasonable break of the power-law dependence of the diffusion coefficient can modify the electron flux enough to reproduce the observed shape.
Using a recently developed analytical procedure, we determine the rate of magnetic reconnection in the standard model of eruptive solar flares. During the late phase, the neutral line is located near the lower tip of the reconnection current sheet, and the upper region of the current sheet is bifurcated into a pair of Petschek-type shocks. Despite the presence of these shocks, the reconnection rate remains slow if the resistivity is uniform and the flow is laminar. Fast reconnection is achieved only if there is some additional mechanism that can shorten the length of the diffusion region at the neutral line. Observations of plasma flows by the X-Ray Telescope (XRT) on Hinode imply that the diffusion region is in fact quite short. Two possible mechanisms for reducing the length of the diffusion region are localized resistivity and MHD turbulence.
With 91 months of the publicly available Fermi-LAT Pass 8 data, we analyze the gamma-ray emission from the Milky Way satellites to search for potential line signals due to the annihilation of dark matter particles into double photons. The searched targets include a sample of dwarf spheroidal galaxies, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). No significant line emission has been found neither in the stacked dwarf galaxy sample nor in the direction of LMC/SMC. The corresponding upper limits on the cross section of DM annihilation into two photons are derived. Compared with results of previous gamma-ray line searches with the Pass 7 data, the current constraints on the line emission from dwarf spheroidal galaxies has been significantly improved in a wide energy range. With the rapid increase of the sample of dwarf spheroidal galaxies (candidates), we expect that the sensitivity of gamma ray line searches will be significantly improved in the near future.
The event selection developed for the Fermi Large Area Telescope before launch has been periodically updated to reflect the constantly improving knowledge of the detector and the environment in which it operates. Pass 7, released to the public in August 2011, represents the most recent major iteration of this incremental process. In parallel, the LAT team has undertaken a coherent long-term effort aimed at a radical revision of the entire event-level analysis, based on the experience gained in the prime phase of the mission. This includes virtually every aspect of the data reduction process, from the simulation of the detector to the event reconstruction and the background rejection. The potential improvements include (but are not limited to) a significant reduction in background contamination coupled with an increased effective area, a better point-spread function, a better understanding of the systematic uncertainties and an extension of the energy reach for the photon analysis below 100 MeV and above a few hundred GeV. We present an overview of the work that has been done or is ongoing and the prospects for the near future.
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