Search arXivSearch

arXiv · 0807.5053

An Improved Model for Relativistic Solar Proton Acceleration applied to the 2005 January 20 and Earlier Events

Abstract

This paper presents results on modelling the ground level response of the higher energy protons for the 2005 January 20 ground level enhancement (GLE). This event, known as GLE 69, produced the highest intensity of relativistic solar particles since the famous event on 1956 February 23. The location of recent X-ray and gamma-ray emission (N14 W61) was near to Sun-Earth connecting magnetic field lines, thus providing the opportunity to directly observe the acceleration source from Earth. We restrict our analysis to protons of energy greater than 450 MeV to avoid complications arising from transport processes that can affect the propagation of low energy protons. In light of this revised approach we have reinvestigated two previous GLEs: those of 2000 July 14 (GLE 59) and 2001 April 15 (GLE 60). Within the limitations of the spectral forms employed, we find that from the peak (06:55 UT) to the decline (07:30 UT) phases of GLE 69, neutron monitor observations from 450 MeV to 10 GeV are best fitted by the Gallegos-Cruz & Perez-Peraza stochastic acceleration model. In contrast, the Ellison & Ramaty spectra did not fit the neutron monitor observations as well. This result suggests that for GLE 69, a stochastic process cannot be discounted as a mechanism for relativistic particle acceleration, particularly during the initial stages of this solar event. For GLE 59 we find evidence that more than one acceleration mechanism was present, consistent with both shock and stochastic acceleration processes dominating at different times of the event. For GLE 60 we find that Ellison & Ramaty spectra better represent the neutron monitor observations compared to stochastic acceleration spectra. The results for GLEs 59 and 60 are in agreement with our previous work.

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

BibTeXRIS

D. J. Bombardieri, M. L. Duldig, J. E. Humble, K. J. Michael. 2008-07-31. An Improved Model for Relativistic Solar Proton Acceleration applied to the 2005 January 20 and Earlier Events. https://doi.org/10.1086/589494

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

Cosmology from very high energy $γ$-rays

In this work we study how the cosmological parameter, the Hubble constant $H_0$, can be constrained by observation of very high energy (VHE) $γ$-rays at the TeV scale. The VHE $γ$-rays experience attenuation by background radiation field through $e^+e^-$ pair production during the propagation in the intergalactic space. This effect is proportional to the distance that the VHE $γ$-rays go through. Therefore the absorption of TeV $γ$-rays can be taken as cosmological distance indicator to constrain the cosmological parameters. Two blazars Mrk 501 and 1ES 1101-232, which have relatively good spectra measurements by the atmospheric Cerenkov telescope, are studied to constrain $H_0$. The mechanism constraining the Hubble constant adopted here is very different from the previous methods such as the observations of type Ia supernovae and the cosmic microwave background. However, at $2σ$ level, our result is consistent with other methods.

astro-ph

Improved optical mass tracer for galaxy clusters calibrated using weak lensing measurements

We develop an improved mass tracer for clusters of galaxies from optically observed parameters, and calibrate the mass relation using weak gravitational lensing measurements. We employ a sample of ~ 13,000 optically-selected clusters from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) maxBCG catalog, with photometric redshifts in the range 0.1-0.3. The optical tracers we consider are cluster richness, cluster luminosity, luminosity of the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG), and combinations of these parameters. We measure the weak lensing signal around stacked clusters as a function of the various tracers, and use it to determine the tracer with the least amount of scatter. We further use the weak lensing data to calibrate the mass normalization. We find that the best mass estimator for massive clusters is a combination of cluster richness, N_{200}, and the luminosity of the brightest cluster galaxy, L_{BCG}: M_{200\barρ} = (1.27 +/- 0.08) (N_{200}/20)^{1.20 +/- 0.09} (L_{BCG}/\bar{L}_{BCG}(N_{200}))^{0.71 +/- 0.14} \times 10^{14} h^{-1} M_sun, where $\bar{L}_{BCG}(N_{200})$ is the observed mean BCG luminosity at a given richness. This improved mass tracer will enable the use of galaxy clusters as a more powerful tool for constraining cosmological parameters.

astro-ph

Bayesian reconstruction of the cosmological large-scale structure: methodology, inverse algorithms and numerical optimization

We address the inverse problem of cosmic large-scale structure reconstruction from a Bayesian perspective. For a linear data model, a number of known and novel reconstruction schemes, which differ in terms of the underlying signal prior, data likelihood, and numerical inverse extra-regularization schemes are derived and classified. The Bayesian methodology presented in this paper tries to unify and extend the following methods: Wiener-filtering, Tikhonov regularization, Ridge regression, Maximum Entropy, and inverse regularization techniques. The inverse techniques considered here are the asymptotic regularization, the Jacobi, Steepest Descent, Newton-Raphson, Landweber-Fridman, and both linear and non-linear Krylov methods based on Fletcher-Reeves, Polak-Ribiere, and Hestenes-Stiefel Conjugate Gradients. The structures of the up-to-date highest-performing algorithms are presented, based on an operator scheme, which permits one to exploit the power of fast Fourier transforms. Using such an implementation of the generalized Wiener-filter in the novel ARGO-software package, the different numerical schemes are benchmarked with 1-, 2-, and 3-dimensional problems including structured white and Poissonian noise, data windowing and blurring effects. A novel numerical Krylov scheme is shown to be superior in terms of performance and fidelity. These fast inverse methods ultimately will enable the application of sampling techniques to explore complex joint posterior distributions. We outline how the space of the dark-matter density field, the peculiar velocity field, and the power spectrum can jointly be investigated by a Gibbs-sampling process. Such a method can be applied for the redshift distortions correction of the observed galaxies and for time-reversal reconstructions of the initial density field.

astro-ph