Acceleration of Solar Energetic Particles at a Fast Traveling Shock in Non-uniform Coronal Conditions

Abstract

Time-dependent solar energetic particle (SEP) acceleration is investigated at a fast, nearly parallel spherical traveling shock in the strongly non-uniform corona by solving the standard focused transport equation for SEPs and transport equations for parallel propagating Alfvén waves that form a set of coupled equations. This enables the modeling of self-excitation of Alfvén waves in the inertial range by SEPs ahead of the shock and its role in enhancing the efficiency of the diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) of SEPs in a self-regulatory fashion. Preliminary results suggest that, because of the highly non-uniform coronal conditions that the shock encounters, both DSA and wave excitation are highly time-dependent processes. Thus, DSA spectra of SEPs strongly deviate from the simple power-law prediction of standard steady-state DSA theory and initially strong wave excitation weakens rapidly. Consequently, the ability of DSA to produce high energy SEPs in the corona of ∼1 GeV, as observed in the strongest gradual SEP events, appears to be strongly curtailed at a fast nearly parallel shock, but further research is needed before final conclusions can be drawn.