Heliospheric Transport of Neutron-Decay Protons
Abstract
We report on new simulations of the transport of energetic protons originating from the decay of energetic neutrons produced in solar flares. Because the neutrons are fast-moving but insensitive to the solar wind magnetic field, the decay protons are produced over a wide region of space, and they should be detectable by current instruments over a broad range of longitudes for many hours after a sufficiently large gamma-ray flare. Spacecraft closer to the Sun are expected to see orders-of magnitude higher intensities than those at the Earth-Sun distance. The current solar cycle should present an excellent opportunity to observe neutron-decay protons with multiple spacecraft over different heliographic longitudes and distances from the Sun.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1208.2179,
title = {Heliospheric Transport of Neutron-Decay Protons},
author = {E. E. Chollet and R. A. Mewaldt},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1208.2179},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
12 pages, 4 figures, to be published in special issue of Solar Physics