Abstract
The influence of various types of nonthermal electron and proton distributions and photoionization on the charge state of energetic heavy elements moving in a plasma is investigated. The mean charges of Mg, Si, and Fe are calculated for a bi-Maxwellian distribution of the background electrons and for electron and neutral beams with power-law energy distributions. An anomalously high density of the nonthermal component is required to obtain substantial deviations of the equilibrium mean charges of these elements (a few charge units) from the case when they interact with a purely Maxwellian plasma. In this context, the mean charges for O, Ne, Mg, Si, and Fe ions are also calculated for a model with charge-consistent acceleration. The results indicate that photoionization does not significantly influence the charge state of solar cosmic rays if the parameters of the plasma are those characteristic of impulsive solar events.
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