Origin and acceleration of suprathermal particles

Abstract

Observations over the last decade have shown that suprathermal ions with energies above that of the core or bulk solar wind protons (i.e., ~1-2 keV/nucleon) are an important constituent of the overall seed population that is accelerated in solar and interplanetary events. Despite the recent recognition of their importance, the origin of these populations and the method of their acceleration remains poorly understood. This is partly due to the fact that these particles exist in the so-called tail regions of the corresponding solar wind distributions where high temporal and sensitivity measurements are sparse. Moreover, observations comprising long-term averages (between hours to more than a day) show conflicting results. For instance, below ~40 keV/nucleon the ion differential intensities in the solar wind frame appear to exhibit a near-constant power-law spectral slope of ~1.5, perhaps indicating a universal acceleration mechanism. In contrast, at energies greater than ~40 keV/nucleon, the ion composition changes with solar activity, and the energy spectra are significantly steeper, perhaps indicating that the suprathermal pool of material also comprises lower-energy particle populations accelerated in corotating interaction regions, interplanetary shocks, and solar energetic particle events. This paper discusses key observations of suprathermal ions and electrons in terms of state-of-the-art theories and models that have been put forward to account for their origin and acceleration.