Particle Trapping and Acceleration in Turbulent Post-flare Coronal Loops

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Bacchini, Fabio, Ruan, Wenzhi, Keppens, Rony
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2024
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author Bacchini, Fabio
Ruan, Wenzhi
Keppens, Rony
author_facet Bacchini, Fabio
Ruan, Wenzhi
Keppens, Rony
contents We present a study of energetic-electron trapping and acceleration in the Kelvin-Helmholtz-induced magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence of post-flare loops in the solar corona. Using the particle-tracing capabilities of MPI-AMRVAC 3.0, we evolve ensembles of test electrons (i.e. without feedback to the underlying MHD) inside the turbulent looptop, using the guiding-center approximation. With the MHD looptop model of Ruan et al. 2018, we investigate the relation between turbulence and particle trapping inside the looptop structure, showing that better-developed turbulent cascades result in more efficient trapping primarily due to mirror effects. We then quantify the electron acceleration in the time-evolving MHD turbulence, and find that ideal-MHD processes inside the looptop can produce nonthermal particle spectra from an initial Maxwellian distribution. Electrons in this turbulence are preferentially accelerated by mirror effects in the direction perpendicular to the local magnetic field while remaining confined within small regions of space between magnetic islands. Assuming dominance of Bremsstrahlung radiation mechanisms, we employ the resulting information from accelerated electrons (combined with the MHD background) to construct HXR spectra of the post-flare loop that include nonthermal-particle contributions. Our results pave the way to constructing more realistic simulations of radiative coronal structure for comparison with current and future observations.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2403_07107
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Particle Trapping and Acceleration in Turbulent Post-flare Coronal Loops
Bacchini, Fabio
Ruan, Wenzhi
Keppens, Rony
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Space Physics
We present a study of energetic-electron trapping and acceleration in the Kelvin-Helmholtz-induced magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence of post-flare loops in the solar corona. Using the particle-tracing capabilities of MPI-AMRVAC 3.0, we evolve ensembles of test electrons (i.e. without feedback to the underlying MHD) inside the turbulent looptop, using the guiding-center approximation. With the MHD looptop model of Ruan et al. 2018, we investigate the relation between turbulence and particle trapping inside the looptop structure, showing that better-developed turbulent cascades result in more efficient trapping primarily due to mirror effects. We then quantify the electron acceleration in the time-evolving MHD turbulence, and find that ideal-MHD processes inside the looptop can produce nonthermal particle spectra from an initial Maxwellian distribution. Electrons in this turbulence are preferentially accelerated by mirror effects in the direction perpendicular to the local magnetic field while remaining confined within small regions of space between magnetic islands. Assuming dominance of Bremsstrahlung radiation mechanisms, we employ the resulting information from accelerated electrons (combined with the MHD background) to construct HXR spectra of the post-flare loop that include nonthermal-particle contributions. Our results pave the way to constructing more realistic simulations of radiative coronal structure for comparison with current and future observations.
title Particle Trapping and Acceleration in Turbulent Post-flare Coronal Loops
topic Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Space Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.07107