Abstract
The interactions of cosmic rays with the solar atmosphere produce secondary particle which can reach the Earth. In this work we present a comprehensive calculation of the yields of secondary particles as gamma-rays, electrons, positrons, neutrons and neutrinos performed with the FLUKA code. We also estimate the intensity at the Sun and the fluxes at the Earth of these secondary particles by folding their yields with the intensities of cosmic rays impinging on the solar surface. The results are sensitive on the assumptions on the magnetic field nearby the Sun and to the cosmic-ray transport in the magnetic field in the inner solar system.
Highlights
Cosmic rays entering in the Solar System after propagating for millions of years in the Galaxy can reach the planets and the Sun itself, producing emission of secondary particles, such as gamma rays and neutrinos, due to the interactions with the surfaces or the atmospheres of the celestial bodies.The Moon [1,2] and the Earth [3] are both bright sources of gamma rays
While gamma rays from the Earth and from the Moon are originated from cosmic-ray nuclei, the solar gamma-ray emission consists of two components: the first one, called disk emission, is due to cosmic-ray nuclei interacting with the solar surface [4,5] and is localized around the solar disk; the second one, which is due to the inverse Compton scatterings of cosmicray electrons with the solar optical photons
We have implemented the field maps taken from the Solar Dynamics Observatory Joint Science Operations Center (JSOC) [31,32], which are calculated starting from the photospheric magnetic field observations [33,34,35] of the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) [36], the Solar Dynamics Observatory [37], and the Michelson Doppler Imager [38] instrument on the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory [39] and assuming RSS 1⁄4 2.5R⊙
Summary
Cosmic rays entering in the Solar System after propagating for millions of years in the Galaxy can reach the planets and the Sun itself, producing emission of secondary particles, such as gamma rays and neutrinos, due to the interactions with the surfaces or the atmospheres of the celestial bodies. Several attempts have already been made to calculate the secondary emission (e.g., gamma rays and neutrinos) due to the interactions of cosmic rays with the solar atmosphere We have performed a full simulation with the FLUKA code to calculate the yields of secondary particles produced by the interactions of cosmic rays with the Sun. In particular, we have simulated the interactions of protons, helium nuclei, and electrons impinging on the solar atmosphere in a wide range of kinetic energy per nucleon from 0.1 GeV=n to 100 TeV=n, while the energy of secondary particles has been simulated down to 100 keV. The profile of the solar atmosphere needs to be accounted in detail, since the cascades usually develop from a low-density medium toward a denser medium; in addition, the yield of secondary particles far away from the Sun is affected by the grammage along the line of the sight from the production point to the outer space
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