Sun as a cosmic ray TeVatron
太阳作为宇宙线TeV加速器
Very recently, HAWC observatory discovered the high-energy gamma ray emission from the solar disk during the quiescent stage of the Sun, extending the Fermi-LAT detection of intense, hard emission between 0.1 - 200 GeV to TeV energies. The flux of these observed gamma-rays is significantly higher than that theoretically expected from hadronic interactions of galactic cosmic rays with the solar atmosphere. More importantly, spectral slope of Fermi and HAWC observed gamma ray energy spectra differ significantly from that of galactic cosmic rays casting doubt on the prevailing galactic cosmic ray ancestry model of solar disk gamma rays. In this work, we show that assuming quiet Sun can accelerate cosmic rays to TeV energies with an appropriate flux level in the solar chromosphere, the mystery of the origin of observed gamma rays from the solar disk can be resolved consistently through the hadronic interaction of these cosmic rays with solar matter above the photosphere in a quiet state. The upcoming IceCube-Gen2 detector should be able to validate the proposed model in future through observation of TeV muon neutrino flux from the solar disk.
展开 ▾首次提出宁静太阳自身加速宇宙线至 TeV 能量,并通过强子相互作用统一解释了 HAWC 和 Fermi 观测到的太阳盘面伽马射线异常,同时预言了可检验的中微子信号。
传统模型(Seckel+ 1991;Mazziotta+ 2020)基于银河宇宙线与太阳大气的强子相互作用,但预测的伽马射线通量和谱形与 Fermi-LAT 及 HAWC 观测不符,且未能解释通量随太阳活动的反相关。观测上,伽马射线盘面均匀分布(Linden+ 2022)暗示辐射源于出射粒子。本文提出宁静太阳色球层有能力通过扩散激波加速宇宙线至 TeV 能量,强子相互作用产生的次级伽马射线与中微子可统一解释上述观测,同时改善了对太阳宇宙线阴影的模拟。未来 IceCube-Gen2 对 TeV 中微子的探测将成为关键检验;若证实,太阳作为粒子加速器的证据将对银河宇宙线起源理论产生深远影响。
预印本 2023-05-26 · 接收 2026-05-24 · 刊出 2026-07-09 · 收录 2026-07-22