Inverse Velocity Dispersion of Solar Energetic Protons Observed by Solar Orbiter and Its Shock Acceleration Explanation

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of inverse velocity dispersion in solar energetic protons observed by Solar Orbiter, challenging traditional models, and proposes shock diffusive acceleration as the underlying mechanism.

Contribution

It introduces the first observation of inverse velocity dispersion in solar energetic protons and analyzes shock acceleration as its cause.

Findings

Discovery of inverse velocity dispersion in 10 proton events.

Shock diffusive acceleration likely explains the phenomenon.

Determination of physical conditions and timescales during shock acceleration.

Abstract

The particle acceleration and transport process during solar eruptions is one of the critical and long-standing problems in space plasma physics. Through decades of research, it is well accepted that particles with higher energies released during a solar eruption arrive at observers earlier than the particles with lower energies, forming a well-known structure in the dynamic energy spectrum called particle velocity dispersion (VD), as frequently observed by space missions. However, this picture is challenged by new observations from NASA's Parker Solar Probe and ESA's Solar Orbiter which show an unexpected inverse velocity dispersion (IVD) phenomenon, where particles with higher-energies arrive later at the observer. Facing on the challenge, we here report the recent discovery of such IVD structures with 10 solar energetic proton events observed by Solar Orbiter, and then analyze the mechanisms causing this unusual phenomenon. We suggest that shock diffusive acceleration, with respect to magnetic reconnection, is probably a dominant mechanism to accelerate protons to tens of MeV in such events where particles need longer time to reach higher energies. And we determine, innovatively, the physical conditions and time scales during the actual shock acceleration process that cannot be observed directly.