Solar flares, magnetars, and helioseismology

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Solar flares, magnetars, and helioseismology

• H.S. Hudson
• SSL/UCB

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Outline

• Working concept for flare physics
• Missing knowledge in the deep atmosphere
• Nature of impulse
• Magnetar behavior

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Overlapping needs

• HE astrophysicists tell helioseismologists where
  the flare impulse happens
• Helioseismologists tell HE astrophysicists what
  sunspot magnetic fields above and below t5000 1
  must be like

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Schrijver et al., Solar Phys. 206, 69, 2002
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Four things the TRACE movie showed

• Early inward motions, prior to the eruption
• Dimming - the CME starting off
• Excitation of coupled normal modes in the arcade
• Arcade blowout
• But mainly, that the energy release is COMPACT
  and BRIEF

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Forbes, T., JGR 105, 23,153, 2000
Gallagher, P. personal communication 2004
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Archive cartoon from Gurman, 1987 - shows HE
region nicely
P0 g-rays, magnetar g-rays, below t 1
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Particle model uncertainties

• What is the source?
• Propagation at depth B Pd
  (not divergence-free!)
• Ad-hoc assumption about wave distribution (for
  pitch-angle scattering)

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MDI magnetic artifacts (D. Brown) show locations
of particle precipitation in October 28, 2003
flare?
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Energy and momentum

• Cross-sections and difficulty of inference
• Total energies in particles
• Recall Lin Hudson 1976 (or Kane Donnelly
  1971) energetic electrons may contain the total
  flare energy after B2/8p

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Ramaty et al., ApJ 455, 193, 1995 protons can
rival electrons for total energy
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Bremsstrahlung
Nuclear excitation
s
Bad
Bad
E
E
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Flare/Magnetar comparison

• Flare impulse via particles above photosphere,
  1032 ergs, localized, extended in time
• Magnetar impulse via g-rays below photosphere,
  1022 ergs, distributed across hemisphere, 0.2 s
  duration

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