Determination of Stochastic Acceleration Model Characteristics in Solar Flares

TL;DR

This paper develops a non-parametric inversion method to determine stochastic acceleration characteristics in solar flares directly from observational data, revealing different energy dependence behaviors in two intense flare events.

Contribution

It introduces a novel inversion approach combining integral form of the Fokker-Planck equation with RHESSI data to directly derive acceleration and escape timescales in solar flares.

Findings

Different energy dependence of acceleration and scattering timescales in two flares

Steep turbulence spectrum consistent with stochastic acceleration in one event

Magnetic mirroring may influence electron escape in the more intense flare

Abstract

Following our recent paper (Petrosian & Chen 2010), we have developed an inversion method to determine the basic characteristics of the particle acceleration mechanism directly and non-parametrically from observations under the leaky box framework. In the above paper, we demonstrated this method for obtaining the energy dependence of the escape time. Here, by converting the Fokker-Planck equation to its integral form, we derive the energy dependences of the energy diffusion coefficient and direct acceleration rate for stochastic acceleration in terms of the accelerated and escaping particle spectra. Combining the regularized inversion method of Piana et al. 2007 and our procedure, we relate the acceleration characteristics in solar flares directly to the count visibility data from RHESSI. We determine the timescales for electron escape, pitch angle scattering, energy diffusion, and direct acceleration at the loop top acceleration region for two intense solar flares based on the regularized electron flux spectral images. The X3.9 class event shows dramatically different energy dependences for the acceleration and scattering timescales, while the M2.1 class event shows a milder difference. The M2.1 class event could be consistent with the stochastic acceleration model with a very steep turbulence spectrum. A likely explanation of the X3.9 class event could be that the escape of electrons from the acceleration region is not governed by a random walk process, but instead is affected by magnetic mirroring, in which the scattering time is proportional to the escape time and has an energy dependence similar to the energy diffusion time.