Simulating gamma-ray production from cosmic rays interacting with the solar atmosphere in the presence of coronal magnetic fields* * Supported in China by the NSFC (12261160362, 12022502). KCYN is supported by grants provided by the NSFC (12322517, N_CUHK456/22) and RGC (24302721, 14305822, 14308023)
Zhe Li, Kenny C. Y. Ng, Songzhan Chen, Yuncheng Nan, Huihai He
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Cosmic rays can interact with the solar atmosphere and produce a slew of secondary messengers, making the Sun a bright gamma-ray source in the sky. Detailed observations with Fermi-LAT have shown that these interactions must be strongly affected by solar magnetic fields in order to produce a wide range of observational features, such as a high flux and hard spectrum. However, the detailed mechanisms behind these features are still a mystery. In this study, we tackle this problem by performing particle-interaction simulations in the solar atmosphere in the presence of coronal magnetic fields using the potential field source surface (PFSS) model. We find that low-energy (~ GeV) gamma-ray production is significantly enhanced by the coronal magnetic fields, but the enhancement decreases rapidly with energy. The enhancement directly correlates with the production of gamma rays with large deviation angles relative to the input cosmic-ray direction. We conclude that coronal magnetic fields are essential for correctly modeling solar disk gamma rays below 10 GeV, but above that, the effect of coronal magnetic fields diminishes. Other magnetic field structures are needed to explain the high-energy disk emission.
期刊介绍:
Chinese Physics C covers the latest developments and achievements in the theory, experiment and applications of:
Particle physics;
Nuclear physics;
Particle and nuclear astrophysics;
Cosmology;
Accelerator physics.
The journal publishes original research papers, letters and reviews. The Letters section covers short reports on the latest important scientific results, published as quickly as possible. Such breakthrough research articles are a high priority for publication.
The Editorial Board is composed of about fifty distinguished physicists, who are responsible for the review of submitted papers and who ensure the scientific quality of the journal.
The journal has been awarded the Chinese Academy of Sciences ‘Excellent Journal’ award multiple times, and is recognized as one of China''s top one hundred key scientific periodicals by the General Administration of News and Publications.