Is Cyclotron Maser Emission in Solar Flares Driven by a Horseshoe Distribution?

Abstract

Since the early 1980s, decimetric spike bursts have been attributed to electron cyclotron maser emission (ECME) by the electrons that produce hard X-ray bursts as they precipitate into the chromosphere in the impulsive phase of a solar flare. Spike bursts are regarded as analogous to the auroral kilometric radiation (AKR), which is associated with the precipitation of auroral electrons in a geomagnetic substorm. Originally, a loss-cone-driven version of ECME, developed for AKR, was applied to spike bursts, but it is now widely accepted that a different, horseshoe-driven, version of EMCE applies to AKR. We explore the implications of the assumption that horseshoe-driven ECME also applies to spike bursts. We develop a 1D model for the acceleration of the electrons by a parallel electric field, and show that under plausible assumptions it leads to a horseshoe distribution of electrons in a solar flare. A second requirement for horseshoe-driven ECME is an extremely low plasma density, referred to as a density cavity. We argue that a coronal density cavity should develop in association with a hard X-ray burst, and that such a density cavity can overcome a long-standing problem with the escape of ECME through the second-harmonic absorption layer. Both the horseshoe distribution and the associated coronal density cavity are highly localized, and could not be resolved in the statistically large number of local precipitation regions needed to explain a hard X-ray burst. The model highlights the "number problem" in the supply of the electrons needed to explain a hard X-ray burst.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in Solar Physics

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• Kinetic simulation of the electron-cyclotron maser instability: effect of a finite source size

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• Harmonic ECME Excited by Energetic Electrons Travelling Inside A Coronal Loop
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• Harmonic Electron Cyclotron Maser Emission along the Coronal Loop
• Wave emission of non-thermal electron beams generated by magnetic reconnection
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