181 research outputs found
Properties of Flares-Generated Seismic Waves on the Sun
The solar seismic waves excited by solar flares (``sunquakes'') are observed
as circular expanding waves on the Sun's surface. The first sunquake was
observed for a flare of July 9, 1996, from the Solar and Heliospheric
Observatory (SOHO) space mission. However, when the new solar cycle started in
1997, the observations of solar flares from SOHO did not show the seismic
waves, similar to the 1996 event, even for large X-class flares during the
solar maximum in 2000-2002. The first evidence of the seismic flare signal in
this solar cycle was obtained for the 2003 ``Halloween'' events, through
acoustic ``egression power'' by Donea and Lindsey. After these several other
strong sunquakes have been observed. Here, I present a detailed analysis of the
basic properties of the helioseismic waves generated by three solar flares in
2003-2005. For two of these flares, X17 flare of October 28, 2003, and X1.2
flare of January 15, 2005, the helioseismology observations are compared with
simultaneous observations of flare X-ray fluxes measured from the RHESSI
satellite. These observations show a close association between the flare
seismic waves and the hard X-ray source, indicating that high-energy electrons
accelerated during the flare impulsive phase produced strong compression waves
in the photosphere, causing the sunquake. The results also reveal new physical
properties such as strong anisotropy of the seismic waves, the amplitude of
which varies significantly with the direction of propagation. The waves travel
through surrounding sunspot regions to large distances, up to 120 Mm, without
significant decay. These observations open new perspectives for helioseismic
diagnostics of flaring active regions on the Sun and for understanding the
mechanisms of the energy release and transport in solar flares.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Ap
Kinetic Turbulence
The weak collisionality typical of turbulence in many diffuse astrophysical
plasmas invalidates an MHD description of the turbulent dynamics, motivating
the development of a more comprehensive theory of kinetic turbulence. In
particular, a kinetic approach is essential for the investigation of the
physical mechanisms responsible for the dissipation of astrophysical turbulence
and the resulting heating of the plasma. This chapter reviews the limitations
of MHD turbulence theory and explains how kinetic considerations may be
incorporated to obtain a kinetic theory for astrophysical plasma turbulence.
Key questions about the nature of kinetic turbulence that drive current
research efforts are identified. A comprehensive model of the kinetic turbulent
cascade is presented, with a detailed discussion of each component of the model
and a review of supporting and conflicting theoretical, numerical, and
observational evidence.Comment: 31 pages, 3 figures, 99 references, Chapter 6 in A. Lazarian et al.
(eds.), Magnetic Fields in Diffuse Media, Astrophysics and Space Science
Library 407, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg (2015
Solar Wind Turbulence and the Role of Ion Instabilities
International audienc
Roles of Fast-Cyclotron and Alfven-Cyclotron Waves for the Multi-Ion Solar Wind
Using linear Vlasov theory of plasma waves and quasi-linear theory of
resonant wave-particle interaction, the dispersion relations and the
electromagnetic field fluctuations of fast and Alfven waves are studied for a
low-beta multi-ion plasma in the inner corona. Their probable roles in heating
and accelerating the solar wind via Landau and cyclotron resonances are
quantified. We assume that (1) low-frequency Alfven and fast waves have the
same spectral shape and the same amplitude of power spectral density; (2) these
waves eventually reach ion cyclotron frequencies due to a turbulence cascade;
(3) kinetic wave-particle interaction powers the solar wind. The existence of
alpha particles in a dominant proton/electron plasma can trigger linear mode
conversion between oblique fast-whistler and hybrid alpha-proton cyclotron
waves. The fast-cyclotron waves undergo both alpha and proton cyclotron
resonances. The alpha cyclotron resonance in fast-cyclotron waves is much
stronger than that in Alfven-cyclotron waves. For alpha cyclotron resonance, an
oblique fast-cyclotron wave has a larger left-handed electric field
fluctuation, a smaller wave number, a larger local wave amplitude, and a
greater energization capability than a corresponding Alfven-cyclotron wave at
the same wave propagation angle \theta, particularly at < \theta <
. When Alfven-cyclotron or fast-cyclotron waves are present, alpha
particles are the chief energy recipient. The transition of preferential
energization from alpha particles to protons may be self-modulated by
differential speed and temperature anisotropy of alpha particles via the
self-consistently evolving wave-particle interaction. Therefore, fast-cyclotron
waves as a result of linear mode coupling is a potentially important mechanism
for preferential energization of minor ions in the main acceleration region of
the solar wind.Comment: 29 pages, 10 figures, 3 tables. Accepted for publication in Solar
Physic
Magnetic fields in cosmic particle acceleration sources
We review here some magnetic phenomena in astrophysical particle accelerators
associated with collisionless shocks in supernova remnants, radio galaxies and
clusters of galaxies. A specific feature is that the accelerated particles can
play an important role in magnetic field evolution in the objects. We discuss a
number of CR-driven, magnetic field amplification processes that are likely to
operate when diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) becomes efficient and
nonlinear. The turbulent magnetic fields produced by these processes determine
the maximum energies of accelerated particles and result in specific features
in the observed photon radiation of the sources. Equally important, magnetic
field amplification by the CR currents and pressure anisotropies may affect the
shocked gas temperatures and compression, both in the shock precursor and in
the downstream flow, if the shock is an efficient CR accelerator. Strong
fluctuations of the magnetic field on scales above the radiation formation
length in the shock vicinity result in intermittent structures observable in
synchrotron emission images. Resonant and non-resonant CR streaming
instabilities in the shock precursor can generate mesoscale magnetic fields
with scale-sizes comparable to supernova remnants and even superbubbles. This
opens the possibility that magnetic fields in the earliest galaxies were
produced by the first generation Population III supernova remnants and by
clustered supernovae in star forming regions.Comment: 30 pages, Space Science Review
Strange particle production in proton-proton collisions at TeV with ALICE at the LHC
The production of mesons containing strange quarks (K, ) and both
singly and doubly strange baryons (, Anti-, and
+Anti-) are measured at central rapidity in pp collisions at
= 0.9 TeV with the ALICE experiment at the LHC. The results are
obtained from the analysis of about 250 k minimum bias events recorded in 2009.
Measurements of yields (dN/dy) and transverse momentum spectra at central
rapidities for inelastic pp collisions are presented. For mesons, we report
yields () of 0.184 0.002 stat. 0.006 syst. for K and
0.021 0.004 stat. 0.003 syst. for . For baryons, we find
= 0.048 0.001 stat. 0.004 syst. for , 0.047
0.002 stat. 0.005 syst. for Anti- and 0.0101 0.0020 stat.
0.0009 syst. for +Anti-. The results are also compared with
predictions for identified particle spectra from QCD-inspired models and
provide a baseline for comparisons with both future pp measurements at higher
energies and heavy-ion collisions.Comment: 33 pages, 21 captioned figures, 10 tables, authors from page 28,
published version, figures at
http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/387
Anisotropic flow of charged hadrons, pions and (anti-)protons measured at high transverse momentum in Pb-Pb collisions at TeV
The elliptic, , triangular, , and quadrangular, , azimuthal
anisotropic flow coefficients are measured for unidentified charged particles,
pions and (anti-)protons in Pb-Pb collisions at TeV
with the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Results obtained with the
event plane and four-particle cumulant methods are reported for the
pseudo-rapidity range at different collision centralities and as a
function of transverse momentum, , out to GeV/.
The observed non-zero elliptic and triangular flow depends only weakly on
transverse momentum for GeV/. The small dependence
of the difference between elliptic flow results obtained from the event plane
and four-particle cumulant methods suggests a common origin of flow
fluctuations up to GeV/. The magnitude of the (anti-)proton
elliptic and triangular flow is larger than that of pions out to at least
GeV/ indicating that the particle type dependence persists out
to high .Comment: 16 pages, 5 captioned figures, authors from page 11, published
version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/186
Centrality dependence of charged particle production at large transverse momentum in Pb-Pb collisions at TeV
The inclusive transverse momentum () distributions of primary
charged particles are measured in the pseudo-rapidity range as a
function of event centrality in Pb-Pb collisions at
TeV with ALICE at the LHC. The data are presented in the range
GeV/ for nine centrality intervals from 70-80% to 0-5%.
The Pb-Pb spectra are presented in terms of the nuclear modification factor
using a pp reference spectrum measured at the same collision
energy. We observe that the suppression of high- particles strongly
depends on event centrality. In central collisions (0-5%) the yield is most
suppressed with at -7 GeV/. Above
GeV/, there is a significant rise in the nuclear modification
factor, which reaches for GeV/. In
peripheral collisions (70-80%), the suppression is weaker with almost independently of . The measured nuclear
modification factors are compared to other measurements and model calculations.Comment: 17 pages, 4 captioned figures, 2 tables, authors from page 12,
published version, figures at
http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/284
Suppression of charged particle production at large transverse momentum in central Pb-Pb collisions at TeV
Inclusive transverse momentum spectra of primary charged particles in Pb-Pb
collisions at = 2.76 TeV have been measured by the ALICE
Collaboration at the LHC. The data are presented for central and peripheral
collisions, corresponding to 0-5% and 70-80% of the hadronic Pb-Pb cross
section. The measured charged particle spectra in and GeV/ are compared to the expectation in pp collisions at the same
, scaled by the number of underlying nucleon-nucleon
collisions. The comparison is expressed in terms of the nuclear modification
factor . The result indicates only weak medium effects ( 0.7) in peripheral collisions. In central collisions,
reaches a minimum of about 0.14 at -7GeV/ and increases
significantly at larger . The measured suppression of high- particles is stronger than that observed at lower collision energies,
indicating that a very dense medium is formed in central Pb-Pb collisions at
the LHC.Comment: 15 pages, 5 captioned figures, 3 tables, authors from page 10,
published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/98
Two-pion Bose-Einstein correlations in central Pb-Pb collisions at = 2.76 TeV
The first measurement of two-pion Bose-Einstein correlations in central Pb-Pb
collisions at TeV at the Large Hadron Collider is
presented. We observe a growing trend with energy now not only for the
longitudinal and the outward but also for the sideward pion source radius. The
pion homogeneity volume and the decoupling time are significantly larger than
those measured at RHIC.Comment: 17 pages, 5 captioned figures, 1 table, authors from page 12,
published version, figures at
http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/388
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