Solar Gamma Rays Above 8 MeV

Abstract

Processes which lead to the production of gamma rays with energy greater than 8 MeV in solar flares are reviewed and evaluated. Excited states produced by inelastic scattering, charge exchange, and spallation reactions in the abundant nuclear species are considered in order to identify nuclear lines which may contribute to the Gamma ray spectrum of solar flares. The flux of 15.11 MeV Gamma rays relative to the flux of 4.44 MeV Gamma rays from the de-excitation of the corresponding states in C12 is calculated for a number of assumed distributions of exciting particles. This flux ratio is a sensitive diagnostic of accelerated particle spectra. Other high energy nuclear levels are not so isolated as the 15.11 MeV state and are not expected to be so strong. The spectrum of Gamma rays from the decay of Pi dey is sensitive to the energy distribution of particles accelerated to energies greater than 100 MeV