Electron Acceleration by Multi-Island Coalescence

Energetic electrons of up to tens of MeV are created during explosive phenomena in the solar corona. While many theoretical models consider magnetic reconnection as a possible way of generating energetic electrons, the precise roles of magnetic reconnection during acceleration and heating of electrons still remain unclear. Here we show from 2D particle-in-cell simulations that coalescence of magnetic islands that naturally form as a consequence of tearing mode instability and associated magnetic reconnection leads to efficient energization of electrons. The key process is the secondary magnetic reconnection at the merging points, or the `anti-reconnection', which is, in a sense, driven by the converging outflows from the initial magnetic reconnection regions. By following the trajectories of the most energetic electrons, we found a variety of different acceleration mechanisms but the energization at the anti-reconnection is found to be the most important process. We discuss possible applications to the energetic electrons observed in the solar flares. We anticipate our results to be a starting point for more sophisticated models of particle acceleration during the explosive energy release phenomena.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures (degraded figure quality), 1 table. Accepted for publication in ApJ

Modeling of gyrosynchrotron radio emission pulsations produced by MHD loop oscillations in solar flares

A quantitative study of the observable radio signatures of the sausage, kink, and torsional MHD oscillation modes in flaring coronal loops is performed. Considering first non-zero order effect of these various MHD oscillation modes on the radio source parameters such as magnetic field, line of sight, plasma density and temperature, electron distribution function, and the source dimensions, we compute time dependent radio emission (spectra and light curves). The radio light curves (of both flux density and degree of polarization) at all considered radio frequencies are than quantified in both time domain (via computation of the full modulation amplitude as a function of frequency) and in Fourier domain (oscillation spectra, phases, and partial modulation amplitude) to form the signatures specific to a particular oscillation mode and/or source parameter regime. We found that the parameter regime and the involved MHD mode can indeed be distinguished using the quantitative measures derived in the modeling. We apply the developed approach to analyze radio burst recorded by Owens Valley Solar Array and report possible detection of the sausage mode oscillation in one (partly occulted) flare and kink or torsional oscillations in another flare.Comment: ApJ, accepte

On the Brightness and Waiting-time Distributions of a Type III Radio Storm observed by STEREO/WAVES

Type III solar radio storms, observed at frequencies below approximately 16 MHz by space borne radio experiments, correspond to the quasi-continuous, bursty emission of electron beams onto open field lines above active regions. The mechanisms by which a storm can persist in some cases for more than a solar rotation whilst exhibiting considerable radio activity are poorly understood. To address this issue, the statistical properties of a type III storm observed by the STEREO/WAVES radio experiment are presented, examining both the brightness distribution and (for the first time) the waiting-time distribution. Single power law behavior is observed in the number distribution as a function of brightness; the power law index is approximately 2.1 and is largely independent of frequency. The waiting-time distribution is found to be consistent with a piecewise-constant Poisson process. This indicates that during the storm individual type III bursts occur independently and suggests that the storm dynamics are consistent with avalanche type behavior in the underlying active region.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letter

Particle acceleration by strong turbulence in solar flares: theory of spectrum evolution

We propose a nonlinear self-consistent model of the turbulent non-resonant particle acceleration in solar flares. We simulate temporal evolution of the spectra of charged particles accelerated by strong long-wavelength MHD turbulence taking into account back reaction of the accelerated particles on the turbulence. The main finding is that the nonlinear coupling of accelerated particles and MHD turbulence result in prominent evolution of the spectra of accelerated particles, which can be either soft-hard-soft or soft-hard-harder depending on the particle injection efficiency. Such evolution patterns are widely observed in hard X-ray and gamma-ray emission from solar flares.Comment: ApJL in pres

Thermal to Nonthermal Energy Partition at the Early Rise Phase of Solar Flares

In some flares the thermal component appears much earlier than the nonthermal component in X-ray range. Using sensitive microwave observations we revisit this finding made by Battaglia et al. (2009) based on RHESSI data analysis. We have found that nonthermal microwave emission produced by accelerated electrons with energy of at least several hundred keV, appears as early as the thermal soft X-ray emission indicative that the electron acceleration takes place at the very early flare phase. The non-detection of the hard X-rays at that early stage of the flares is, thus, an artifact of a limited RHESSI sensitivity. In all considered events, the microwave emission intensity increases at the early flare phase. We found that either thermal or nonthermal gyrosynchrotron emission can dominate the low-frequency part of the microwave spectrum below the spectral peak occurring at 3-10 GHz. In contrast, the high-frequency optically thin part of the spectrum is always formed by the nonthermal, accelerated electron component, whose power-law energy spectrum can extend up to a few MeV at this early flare stage. This means that even though the total number of accelerated electrons is small at this stage, their nonthermal spectrum is fully developed. This implies that an acceleration process of available seed particles is fully operational. While, creation of this seed population (the process commonly called `injection' of the particles from the thermal pool into acceleration) has a rather low efficiency at this stage, although, the plasma heating efficiency is high. This imbalance between the heating and acceleration (in favor of the heating) is difficult to reconcile within most of available flare energization models. Being reminiscent of the tradeoff between the Joule heating and runaway electron acceleration, it puts additional constraints on the electron injection into the acceleration process.Comment: 11 pages, 12 figures, accepted for Ap

Alfvénic wave heating of the upper chromosphere in flares

We have developed a numerical model of flare heating due to the dissipation of Alfv\'enic waves propagating from the corona to the chromosphere. With this model, we present an investigation of the key parameters of these waves on the energy transport, heating, and subsequent dynamics. For sufficiently high frequencies and perpendicular wave numbers, the waves dissipate significantly in the upper chromosphere, strongly heating it to flare temperatures. This heating can then drive strong chromospheric evaporation, bringing hot and dense plasma to the corona. We therefore find three important conclusions: (1) Alfv\'enic waves, propagating from the corona to the chromosphere, are capable of heating the upper chromosphere and the corona, (2) the atmospheric response to heating due to the dissipation of Alfv\'enic waves can be strikingly similar to heating by an electron beam, and (3) this heating can produce explosive evaporation.Comment: Accepted to ApJ

NuSTAR observation of a minuscule microflare in a solar active region

We present X-ray imaging spectroscopy of one of the weakest active region (AR) microflares ever studied. The microflare occurred at ∼11:04 UT on 2018 September 9 and we studied it using the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope ARray (NuSTAR) and the Solar Dynamic Observatory's Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (SDO/AIA). The microflare is observed clearly in 2.5-7 keV with NuSTAR and in Fe XVIII emission derived from the hotter component of the 94 Å SDO/AIA channel. We estimate the event to be three orders of magnitude lower than a GOES A class microflare with an energy of 1.1e26 erg. It reaches temperatures of 6.7 MK with an emission measure of 8.0e43 cm^−3. Non-thermal emission is not detected but we instead determine upper limits to such emission. We present the lowest thermal energy estimate for an AR microflare in literature, which is at the lower limits of what is still considered an X-ray microflare