Coronal Implosion and Particle Acceleration in the Wake of a Filament Eruption

TL;DR

This study investigates how contracting coronal loops following a filament eruption can accelerate electrons to nonthermal energies, contributing to observed hard X-ray emissions without significant reconnection activity.

Contribution

It presents evidence that shrinking coronal loops can serve as traps for particle acceleration, offering an alternative to reconnection-based models during filament eruptions.

Findings

Contracting loops reached speeds of ~100 km/s.

A single hard X-ray burst was observed without a corresponding soft X-ray increase.

Coronal source above the flare arcade indicates electron trapping and acceleration.

Abstract

We study the evolution of a group of TRACE 195 A coronal loops overlying a reverse S-shaped filament on 2001 June 15. These loops were initially pushed upward with the filament ascending and kinking slowly, but as soon as the filament rose explosively, they began to contract at a speed of ~100 km/s, and sustained for at least 12 min, presumably due to the reduced magnetic pressure underneath with the filament escaping. Despite the contraction following the expansion, the loops of interest remained largely intact during the filament eruption, rather than formed via reconnection. These contracting loops naturally formed a shrinking trap, in which hot electrons of several keV, in an order of magnitude estimation, can be accelerated to nonthermal energies. A single hard X-ray burst, with no corresponding rise in GOES soft X-ray flux, was recorded by the Hard X-ray Telescope (HXT) on board Yohkoh, when the contracting loops expectedly approached the post-flare arcade originating from the filament eruption. HXT images reveal a coronal source distinctly above the top of the soft X-ray arcade by ~15". The injecting electron population for the coronal source (thin target) is hardening by ~1.5 powers relative to the footpoint emission (thick target), which is consistent with electron trapping in the weak diffusion limit. Although we can not rule out additional reconnection, observational evidences suggest that the shrinking coronal trap may play a significant role in the observed nonthermal hard X-ray emission during the flare decay phase.