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.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
M. J. Aschwanden, Particle Acceleration and Kinematics in Solar Flares (Kluwer, Dordrecht, 2002).
P. Balciunaite, S. Krucker, and R. P. Lin, Am. Astron. Soc. Meet. 204, abstract No. 54.07 (2004).
V. B. Berestetskiĭ, E. M. Lifshitz, and L. P. Pitaevskiĭ, Quantum Electrodynamics (Fizmatlit, Moscow, 2001) [in Russian].
S. A. Bogachev and B. V. Somov, Astron. Lett. 31, 537 (2005).
H. Hudson and J. Ryan, Ann. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 33, 239 (1995).
E. Jahnke, F. Emde, and F. Losch, Tables of Higher Functions (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1960; Nauka, Moscow, 1968).
R. P. Lin, S. Krucker, G. D. Holman, et al., in Proceedings of the 28th International Cosmic Ray Conference, Ed. by T. Kajita, Y. Asaoka, A. Kawachi, et al., (Univ. Acad. Press Inc., Tokyo, 2003), 3207.
L. I. Miroshnichenko, Solar Cosmic Rays (Kluwer, Dordrecht, 2001).
B. V. Somov, Physical Processes in Solar Flares (Kluwer, Dordrecht, 1992).
B. V. Somov, Cosmic Plasma Physics (Kluwer, Dordrecht, 2000).
B. V. Somov and S. A. Bogachev, Astron. Lett. 29, 621 (2003).
B. V. Somov and T. Kosugi, Astrophys. J. 485, 859 (1997).
B. V. Somov, T. Kosugi, I. V. Oreshina, et al., Adv. Space Res. 35, 1712 (2005).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
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.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
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
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063773707010070