Heavy-ion isotopic anomalies in He-3 rich solar particle events

Details Heavy-ion isotopic anomalies in He-3 rich solar particle events Heavy-ion isotopic anomalies in He-3 rich solar particle events

Apr 1994

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1994apj...425..843m&link_type=abstract

Astrophysical Journal, Part 1 (ISSN 0004-637X), vol. 425, no. 2, p. 843-848

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

44

Energetic Particles, Heavy Ions, Helium Isotopes, Solar Corona, Solar Wind, Abundance, Electron Emission, Energy Distribution, Power Spectra, Solar Wind

Scientific paper

We have measured the approximately 1 MeV/nucleon heavy-ion mass composition during a series of (3)He-rich solar particle events during 1992 July using the University of Maryland instrument on the SAMPEX spacecraft. In addition to enhancements of He-3/He-4 of approximately 103 to 104 larger than coronal values, these events also showed typical enhancements of heavy nuclei of up to a factor of approximately 10 compared with large solar particle events. Over the energy range of approximately 0.4 - 4.0 MeV/nucleon the spectra of both he isotopes as well as heavier ions C, N, O, Ne, Mg, Si, S, Ca+Ar, and Fe were found to be power laws in enegy per nucleon with nearly identical spectral indices, indicating that both the He and heavier ions were accelerated by the same mechanism. We obtain upper limits of approximately 15 for possible enrichments of neutron-rich isotopes of C, N, O, and Fe compared to large solar particle events; however, we find Ne-22/Ne-20 = 0.29 +/- 0.10, an enhancement of a factor of 3-4 compared with large solar particle event abundances. We also find evidence of enrichments of approximately 2-3 for Mg-25/Mg-24 and Mg-26/Mg-24, although the uncertainties are large. Thus while at least one of the heavy elements shows isotopic enhancements of neutron-rich isotopes, the mechanisms that produce the extremely large He-3 enrichments apparently do not produce similarly dramatic isotopic anomalies in the heavy nuclei. These observations constrain possible acceleration models and may indicate that the particles are energized in solar coronal locations enhanced in heavy ions.

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