Exploring impulsive solar magnetic energy release and particle acceleration with focused hard X-ray imaging spectroscopy
2017
How impulsive
magnetic energyrelease leads to solar eruptions and how those eruptions are energized and evolve are vital unsolved problems in
Heliophysics. The standard model for solar eruptions summarizes our current understanding of these events.
Magnetic energyin the corona is released through drastic restructuring of the magnetic field via reconnection. Electrons and ions are then accelerated by poorly understood
processes.
Theoriesinclude contracting loops, merging magnetic islands, stochastic acceleration, and turbulence at shocks, among others. Although this basic model is well established, the fundamental physics is poorly understood. HXR observations using grazing-incidence focusing optics can now probe all of the key regions of the standard model. These include two above-the-looptop (ALT) sources which bookend the reconnection region and are likely the sites of
particle accelerationand direct heating. The science achievable by a direct HXR imaging instrument can be summarized by the following science questions and objectives which are some of the most outstanding issues in
solar physics(1) How are
particles acceleratedat the Sun? (1a) Where are electrons accelerated and on what time scales? (1b) What fraction of electrons is accelerated out of the ambient medium? (2) How does
magnetic energyrelease on the Sun lead to flares and eruptions? A Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager (FOXSI) instrument, which can be built now using proven technology and at modest cost, would enable revolutionary advancements in our understanding of impulsive
magnetic energyrelease and
particle acceleration, a process which is known to occur at the Sun but also throughout the Universe.
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