The Sun as a Library for High-Energy Astrophysics
Abstract
Our maternal G dwarf star gives us life, light, warmth, and a surprisingly well-stocked library of high-energy phenomena to study and compare to more distant, violent objects. I will give a survey of what we see from the Sun -- X-rays, gamma-rays, radio emission, energetic neutral atoms, neutrinos, and particles accelerated in the low and high corona -- and of the physical processes and emission mechanisms thought to be involved, including magnetic reconnection, Fermi acceleration, thermal and nonthermal bremsstrahlung, coherent and incoherent radio emission, and gamma-ray line mechanisms: nuclear de-excitation, pion decay, neutron capture, and positron annihilation. I will outline the range of transient coronal behaviors from hypothetical nanoflares below the limit of individual detection to coronal mass ejections and the largest flares, comparing the latter to what is observed from other stars. Throughout the presentation, I will look for parallels with a variety of cosmic objects and observations, with no guarantee that any particular comparison is quantitatively appropriate. Finally, I will advertise the recent contributions of focusing hard X-ray observations with NuSTAR and the FOXSI rockets.
- Publication:
-
AAS/High Energy Astrophysics Division #16
- Pub Date:
- August 2017
- Bibcode:
- 2017HEAD...1640201S