On the Application of Differential Evolution to the Analysis of X-Ray Spectra

TL;DR

This paper applies differential evolution algorithms to analyze RESIK X-ray spectra, simultaneously determining coronal plasma composition and emission measure distributions, demonstrating the method's effectiveness in solar plasma diagnostics.

Contribution

It introduces the use of differential evolution for simultaneous analysis of plasma composition and DEM from X-ray spectra, a novel application in solar physics.

Findings

DE successfully determined coronal abundances and DEM distributions.

Synthesized spectra closely matched observed RESIK spectra.

The method proved effective for plasma analysis in solar flares.

Abstract

Using methods of differential evolution (DE,) we determined the coronal elemental abundances and the differential emission measure (DEM) distributions for the plasma flaring on 2003 January 21. The analyses have been based on RESIK X-ray spectra. DE belongs to the family of evolutionary algorithms. DE is conceptually simple and easy to be implemented, so it has been applied to solve many problems in science and engineering. In this study we apply this method in a new context: simultaneous determination of plasma composition and DEM . In order to increase the confidence in the results obtained using DE, we tested the use of its algorithms by comparing the DE synthesized spectra with respective spectra observed by RESIK. Extensive discussion of the DE method used and the obtained physical characteristics of flaring plasma is presented.