The FIP and Inverse-FIP Effects in Solar Flares

Abstract

Abstract The inverse first ionization potential (FIP) effect, the depletion in the coronal abundance of elements like Fe, Mg, and Si that are ionized in the solar chromosphere relative to those that are neutral, has been identified in several solar flares. We give a more detailed discussion of the mechanism of fractionation by the ponderomotive force associated with magnetohydrodynamic waves, paying special attention to the conditions in which inverse-FIP fractionation arises in order to better understand its relation to the usual FIP effect, i.e., the enhancement of the coronal abundance of Fe, Mg, Si, etc. The FIP effect is generated by parallel propagating Alfvén waves, with either photospheric, or more likely coronal, origins. The inverse-FIP effect arises as upward-propagating fast-mode waves with an origin in the photosphere or below refract back downwards in the chromosphere where the Alfvén speed is increasing with altitude. We give a more physically motivated picture of the FIP fractionation, based on the wave refraction around inhomogeneities in the solar atmosphere, and inspired by previous discussions of analogous phenomena in the optical trapping of particles by laser beams. We apply these insights to modeling the fractionation and find good agreement with the observations of Katsuda et al. and Dennis et al.