Electron cyclotron wave acceleration outside a flaring loop

Sprangle, P. and L. Vlahos, Electron cyclotron wave acceleration outside a flaring loop, ApJ, 273, L95-L99 (1983) (ADS)

The cartoon

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This presents the interesting idea that a wave disturbance can leak out of a flaring volume, and resonantly transfer some of its energy to neighboring regions. The strong point of such an idea is that it can explain how energetic electrons, known from their hard X-ray signatures to be in the deepest atmosphere and on closed field structures, can also find themselves on flux tubes immediately connecting into the heliosphere.

      One drawback that the Archivist can imagine (other than the usual matter of unravelling all of the strong assumptions in such a theory): How can this resonant wave transport picture be very efficient, given the geometry? In other words, how do the waves seek out and find the open fields? The answer to this might be that we don't need many electrons to generate a type III burst.

Date: 2012 June 02

Update: 2019 November 29