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Formation of power-law electron spectra in collapsing magnetic traps

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Abstract

The energy distribution of the fast electrons captured into a collapsing magnetic trap in the solar corona is calculated as a function of the trap length and diameter. It is shown that if the electrons injected into the trap have a power-law spectrum, then their spectrum remains a power-law one with the same slope throughout the acceleration process for both the Fermi and betatron acceleration mechanisms. For electrons with a thermal injection spectrum, the model predicts two types of hard X-ray sources, thermal and nonthermal. Thermal sources are formed in traps dominated by the betatron mechanism. Nonthermal sources with a power-law spectrum are formed when electrons are accelerated by the Fermi mechanism.

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Original Russian Text © S.A. Bogachev, B.V. Somov, 2007, published in Pis’ma v Astronomicheskiĭ Zhurnal, 2007, Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 62–71.

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Bogachev, S.A., Somov, B.V. Formation of power-law electron spectra in collapsing magnetic traps. Astron. Lett. 33, 54–62 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063773707010070

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063773707010070

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