The Physics of Solar Energetic Particles

Abstract

Solar energetic particles (SEPs) are produced in two fundamental ways: at magnetic reconnection sites in solar jets and at collisionless shock waves driven by fast coronal mass ejections (CMEs). "Impulsive" SEP events, on open field lines from jets, have signature abundance enhancements of 3He and of increasingly heavy elements, and their outward streaming electrons drive type-III radio bursts. Similar acceleration for particles trapped on closed loops energizes solar flares. In contrast, fast, wide, CME-driven shocks accelerate seed ions from the ambient corona that grow resonant Alfven waves as they stream outward. These waves can scatter and trap lower-rigidity ions near the shock, limiting outflow, and flattening low-energy spectra upstream at the "streaming limit." Downstream, a spatially-uniform "reservoir" of SEPs is shed by the expanding shock between it and the Sun. These trapped invariant SEP spectra decrease in intensity adiabatically as the volume of the reservoir expands. Ions from the reservoir can seed further acceleration in multi-shock event and energetic proton precipitation can prolong solar gamma-ray emission. Shocks are often additionally seeded by residual impulsive ions which dominate the SEP heavy-ion abundances with their signature enhancements. As samples of the corona, SEP abundances also probe differences with the photosphere that depend upon the first ionization potential (FIP) of the elements.