Modeling Hadronic Gamma-ray Emissions from Solar Flares and Prospects for Detecting Non-thermal Signatures from Protostars

TL;DR

This paper develops a model for gamma-ray emissions from solar and protostellar flares, predicting detectable signals with upcoming telescopes, and aims to understand the particle acceleration mechanisms in these energetic events.

Contribution

The paper introduces a non-thermal emission model for solar and protostellar flares, linking gamma-ray and mm/sub-mm signals to particle acceleration processes, and assesses detectability with future observatories.

Findings

Model reproduces solar flare gamma-ray data.

Cherenkov Telescope Array can detect TeV gamma rays from protostars.

Strong mm/sub-mm signals are consistent with observations.

Abstract

We investigate gamma-ray emission in the impulsive phase of solar flares and the detectability of non-thermal signatures from protostellar flares. Energetic solar flares emit high-energy gamma rays of GeV energies, but their production mechanism and emission site are still unknown. Young stellar objects, including protostars, also exhibit luminous X-ray flares, but the triggering mechanism of the flaring activity is still unclear due to the strong obscuration. Non-thermal signatures in mm/sub-mm and gamma-ray bands are useful to probe protostellar flares owing to their strong penetration power. We develop a non-thermal emission model of the impulsive phase of solar flares, where cosmic-ray protons accelerated at the termination shock produce high-energy gamma rays via hadronuclear interaction with the evaporation plasma. This model can reproduce gamma-ray data in the impulsive phase of a solar flare. We apply our model to protostellar flares and show that Cherenkov Telescope Array will be able to detect gamma rays of TeV energies if particle acceleration in protostellar flares is efficient. Non-thermal electrons accelerated together with protons can emit strong mm and sub-mm signals via synchrotron radiation, whose power is consistent with the energetic mm/sub-mm transients observed from young stars. Future gamma-ray and mm/sub-mm observations from protostars, coordinated with a hard X-ray observation, will unravel the non-thermal particle production and triggering mechanism of protostellar flares.