by Pascal Saint-Hilaire, Sam Krucker, Steven Christe, and Robert P. Lin
Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
Received 2008 August 21; accepted 2009 February 2; published 2009 April 20
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 696, Pages 941–952, 2009 (ADS link)
Abstract
We study the detectability and characterization of electron beams as they leave their acceleration site in the low
corona toward interplanetary space through their nonthermal X-ray bremsstrahlung emission. We demonstrate that
the largest interplanetary electron beams (1035 electrons above 10 keV) can be detected in X-rays with current and future instrumentation, such as RHESSI or the X-Ray Telescope (XRT) onboard Hinode. We make a list of optimal observing conditions and beam characteristics. Amongst others, good imaging (as opposed to mere localization or detection in spatially integrated data) is required for proper characterization, putting the requirement on the number of escaping electrons (above 10 keV) to 3
× 1036 for RHESSI, 3 × 1035 for Hinode/XRT, and 1033
electrons for the FOXSI sounding rocket scheduled to fly in 2011. Moreover, we have found that simple modeling
hints at the possibility that coronal soft X-ray jets could be the result of local heating by propagating electron
beams.
