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Cosmic Rays from SNRs and TeV Gamma-Ray Astronomy

G.P. Rowell

Max Planck Institut für Kernphysik, D-69029 Heidelberg

Abstract. The origin of Galactic cosmic rays is still a burning question that forms a major motivation for developments in ground-based gamma-ray astronomy. SNRs are long-thought to be sites for the acceleration of Galactic cosmic rays, and evidence for gamma-ray and non-thermal X-ray production from some SNRs suggest that they may be capable of accelerating particles to multi-TeV energies. Yet, along with this, and in the same overall model framework (diffusive shock acceleration), is the need to accommodate upper limits at TeV energies imposed on other examples. This review will present an update on the status of SNR observations at TeV energies, their interpretation, and discuss the relevant parameters and issues of next generation ground-based instruments relating to their ability to confirm SNRs as Galactic cosmic ray sources.

Key words: Supernova remnants, gamma-rays,

1. Introduction

Supernova remnants (SNR), notably of the shell type, have long been considered the most likely accelerators of Galactic cosmic rays (CR) up to at least 1014 eV and possibly the knee (E$`10^{15}`$ eV). SNRs as a collective are able to meet the energetics of the observed CR flux at Earth, when considering CR escape and SNR birthrate issues. The average mechanical energy released by each SNR is $`10^{51}`$ erg, and in the above context about 10% of this energy is required for CR acceleration to relativistic energies. The diffusive shock acceleration process invoked in SNR also naturally explains the dN/d$`EE^{2.0}`$ spectrum obtained for the observed CRs at Earth after correction of propagation effects (ie. the source spectrum). The advent of sensitive space-based gamma-ray and X-ray detectors in recent years has provided the opportunity to identify likely sites of CR acceleration in our galaxy. (eg. Esposito et al. 1996, Slane 2001). However, in the context of our understanding of radiative processes from relativistic particles, the search for gamma-radiation at multi-GeV to TeV energies (or Very High Energies, VHE) is also deemed vital to this effort. Within this energy regime it is the atmospheric Čerenkov imaging technique that appears to offer the best sensitivity to detect gamma radiation of such energies.

In this review I will present a summary of shell-type SNR observations at TeV energies, and then cover relevant issues for the next generation ground-based instruments now under construction to confirm or deny the theory that these objects are responsible for accelerating CRs.

2. VHE Gamma Ray Astronomy and Čerenkov Imaging

Non-thermal high energy radiation is presently the most accessible tracer of cosmic ray acceleration in the universe, by virtue of the physics associated with relativistic particles and high energy photons. The spectra of such radiations also closely reflects the spectra of parent particles, and so one is able to study particle acceleration processes.

The detection of VHE gamma-rays uses ground-based sampling of the extensive air shower (EAS). EAS comprise the secondary particles generated as primary gamma and cosmic rays interact with the Earth’s atmosphere. The Čerenkov signature of EAS carries information about the primary particle’s direction, energy and nature (hadronic or electromagnetic). Viewing the angular distribution of this signature with a sufficiently large (usually segmented) mirror ($``$ 10 m2) and focal plane array or camera of photomultiplier (PMT) pixels (ie. an imaging atmospheric Čerenkov telescope, IACT) allows to reconstruct primary parameters to high accuracy with a remarkably high effective collection area ($`10^5`$ m2). Note that a number of experiments today are also making use of the lateral distribution to detect gamma-rays, a subject which is left at the moment for later discussion. The first reliable detection of the Crab Nebula by the Whipple Collaboration with the imaging technique (Weekes et al. 1989) was made using a single telescope employing a 75 m2 segmented mirror and 37 PMT camera. Since then, improvements have been realised such that cameras in use today by Whipple (Finley et al. 1999), CAT (Barrau et al 1998), HEGRA (Daum et al 1997), CANGAROO II (Yoshikoshi et al. 1999) and TACTIC (Bhat et al. 2000) now all exceed 200 pixels and achieve pixel sizes better than $``$0.25. EAS Čerenkov images are often parameterised by the moments of an ellipse following Hillas (1985) although some improvements have been demonstrated (eg. LeBohec et al. 2000, Akhperjanian & Sahakian 1999). The primary aim is to preferentially select EAS images of a gamma-ray nature against those of the vastly outnumbering CR background, leaving a statistically significant excess of gamma-ray like events. A further significant improvement in the technique has been the use of stereoscopic imaging in which the EAS is viewed by at least two different telescopes separated by $``$100 m. This takes advantage of the uncorrelated nature of EAS image fluctuations, thereby achieving an improvement in angular resolution roughly proportional to $`1/\sqrt{n}`$ with $`n`$ the number of views attained for each EAS image (Hofmann et al. 1999). The HEGRA CT-System is currently the most sensitive example of such an array employing the stereoscopic technique. Today angular, energy resolution, energy threshold, and sensitivity of $`\begin{array}{c}<\\ \end{array}0.1^{}`$, $``$15%, $``$250 GeV and $`1\times 10^{12}`$ erg cm-2 s-1 ($`>`$1 TeV, 50 hours, 5$`\sigma `$) respectively are achieved by the best ground-based systems. Here we define the energy threshold at that energy which maximises the differential trigger rate for gamma-rays, for a variety of source spectra. The achieved sensitivity is equivalent to $``$1 Crab at 5 $`\sigma `$ significance, and has been sufficient to probe the TeV-output of the two BL-Lac blazars Mrk 421 and Mrk 501 on timescales of tens of minutes during flaring episodes. For further reviews of TeV observations and current instrumentation the reader is directed to Weekes (2000) and Fegan (2001).

3. Cosmic Ray Acceleration in SNRs

The considerable observational evidence at X-ray energies that SNRs are capable of accelerating CR electrons to multi-TeV energies, arises from the interpretation that their, in some cases entirely featureless X-ray spectra result from synchrotron emitting electrons (Koyama et al. 1995, Koyama et al. 1997, Slane et al. 2001). One can then make rather straightforward predictions concerning the GeV/TeV emission from such sources. The GeV/TeV emission arises from inverse Compton boosting of ambient photons (usually the microwave background) by the X-ray synchrotron-emitting high energy electrons (synchrotron/inverse Compton or S/IC theory), and that the ratio of the X-ray to gamma-ray flux is related to the shock-compressed magnetic field $`f_\mathrm{x}/f_\gamma B^2`$. Observations at TeV energies allow to determine and/or place constraints on $`B`$, which is an important parameter determining many features of shock acceleration. TeV observations can validate the S/IC framework since alternative explanations have been suggested for the hard X-ray emission in some cases (Laming 1998, Laming 2001). Recent results from CANGAROO suggesting the two SNRs, SN1006 and RXJ1713.7$``$3946 are TeV gamma-ray emitters (Tanimori et al. 1998, Muraishi et al. 2000), if confirmed could be considered strong evidence for the S/IC theory, although the hadronic channel (discussed shortly) may not be ruled out for SN1006 (Aharonian & Atoyan 1999).

The widely-accepted framework of diffusive shock acceleration that provides acceleration for such electrons however, must also do so for hadrons (Blandford & Eichler 1987, Völk 2001). Evidence for hadron acceleration in SNRs is unfortunately rather inconclusive in the face of that for electron acceleration. The predictions of Drury, Aharonian & Völk (1994) hereafter DAV, and also Naito & Takahara (1994) led to intense observation of SNRs by space and ground-based gamma-ray observatories. DAV showed that an appreciable gamma-ray flux may be obtained from the decay of $`\pi ^{}`$ particles produced in the interaction of shock-accelerated hadrons with ambient matter nearby, ie. the so-called hadronic channel, which scales according to $`F_\gamma E_{\mathrm{cr}}n/d^2`$, for the SNR distance $`d`$, ambient matter density $`n`$, and energy available for particle acceleration $`E_{\mathrm{cr}}`$ (canonically believed to be $``$10% the total kinetic SNR energy). $`F_\gamma `$ is also somewhat dependent on the spectral index of parent particles. Such fluxes were marginally close to sensitivities of instruments operating throughout the 1990’s, when considering plausible values for the parameters just mentioned. However, apart from the results of EGRET (Esposito et al. 1996) which showed that the MeV/GeV emission from some likely SNRs candidates is consistent with the idea that they are areas of enhanced CR density, results from ground-based efforts have generally revealed TeV upper limits at levels of order 10% Crab flux. The exceptions have been recent evidence that Cas-A is an emitter of TeV gamma-rays (Aharonian et al. 2001a) and of course the two aforementioned CANGAROO results.

Throughout the last half-decade, over a dozen SNRs have undergone observation at TeV energies. Table 1 summarises results for some of these, and includes information considered indicators of the likelihood of TeV emission. We can see that a reasonable range of SNR ages and environments has been sampled although most are of the shell-type. Those SNRs exhibiting such properties as proximity, correct age (explained below), non-thermal X-ray emission, an EGRET source association and possible interaction with an adjacent molecular cloud (with high $`n`$) would be considered prominent candidates for TeV gamma-ray emission.

SNR radius agea dist SNR TeV EGRET Non-th SN Molec.   \[\] \[kyr\] \[kpc\] type   X-rays type cloud  W28 30 150 2.3 C N Y N II? Y  W44 35x27 20 4.0 C N Y N II? Y  W51 30 30 6.0 S? N Mc N II? Y  W63 95x65 24 2.0 S N M N II? Y  $`\gamma `$-Cyg 60 10 1.8 S N Y N II? M  Monoceros 220 10 1.6 S M Y N II? Y  Tycho 8 0.4 2.8 S N N M Ia M  IC443 45 6.2 2.0 S N Y N II? Y  Cas-A 4 0.3 3.4 S Y N Y Ib M  SN1006 30 1.0 1.8 S Y N Y Ia N  RXJ1713.7 65x55 40.0 6.0 S? Y N Y ? Y  a: Upper Limits b: $``$50% uncertainty c: M=Maybe!
Table 1. The present status of prominent SNRs observed at X-ray to TeV gamma-ray energies with the column ’TeV’ indicating a detection at TeV energies (Y: Yes, reported by least one research group) or upper limit only (N: No) at typically $``$10% Crab flux. The presence of non-thermal X-ray, EGRET (MeV/GeV) emission, and whether an interaction with a molecular cloud is suspected (high $`n`$, and OH maser emission) are important indicators of TeV emissivity. Also included is the SNR type (C-Composite, S-Shell) and supernova (SN) progenitor type, if known. References for each source are as follows; W28 (Rowell et al. 2000); W44, W51, W63, $`\gamma `$-Cyg, IC443 (Buckley et al. 1998); Monoceros (Lessard et al. 1999, Lucareli et al. 2000); Tycho (Aharonian et al. 2001b); Cas-A (Aharonian et al. 2001a); SN1006 (Tanimori et al. 1998); RXJ1713.7 (Muraishi et al. 2000). Where possible, radius, age and distance information are taken from Green (2000).

Attempts to explain these results overall, usually in combination with those at X-ray and EGRET gamma-ray energies are not trivial, involving many issues. In the context of accommodating upper limits, extrapolations from EGRET up to TeV energies when considering just the hadronic channel, appear to often imply rather steep particle spectra, $`E^{2.4}`$ (Buckley et al. 1998). More than one process may be responsible for the EGRET emission in some cases. For example Gaisser et al. (1998) and Sturner (1997) showed that the low energy gamma-ray emission may result from non-thermal electron Bremsstrahlung, again with rather steep particle spectra (together the IC and non-thermal Bremsstrahlung comprise the electronic channel of TeV gamma-ray production). Time evolution of SNR gamma-ray emissivity must also be considered, as DAV showed that the peak gamma-ray emissivity of a SNR occurs during the so-called Sedov phase, corresponding to the time after which the swept-up mass exceeds that ejected by the blast. Later the non-linear model of Berezkho & Völk (1997) also confirmed this profile, albeit with some differences. Such information is likely important for those examples considered borderline Sedov (eg. Tycho’s SNR, Aharonian et al. 2001b), or even too old where age limitations on maximum particle energies come into play (see Drury et al. 2000). Non-linear theory (Baring et al. 1999) also indicates that SNR expansion into high density environments may actually limit the maximum particle energies to $``$1 TeV, thereby anti-biasing SNR selection according to $`n`$. Complications are expected from SNR expanding into wind bubbles as expected from type Ib and II supernovae with massive progenitors (Berezkho & Völk 2000). And finally, aside from the above issues and those concerning shock acceleration itself (Kirk & Dendy 2001, Drury et al. 2001), we have also to deal with the rather large uncertainties (factors of least 2) in observable parameters such as $`d`$, $`n`$ and $`E_{\mathrm{cr}}`$ contributing to the wide parameter space, often a factor $`10`$, in which to accommodate models.

Figure 1. HEGRA Cas-A flux and 1$`\sigma `$ uncertainty on spectral index compared with the modelling of Atoyan et al. (2000). Hadronic (dotted) and electronic (IC+Bremsstrahlung, solid and dashed) channels are indicated. Reasonable scaling parameters for each channel were assumed. For comparison the Crab flux and error on spectral index are included. The Cas-A flux amounts to 3.3% Crab flux. The Whipple (Lessard et al. 1999) and CAT (Goret et al. 1999) upper limits are indicated. Note the estimated sensitivity of H.E.S.S. Phase I for point sources (5$`\sigma `$ detection at 50 hrs observation shaded region), which will be more or less similar to that of VERITAS and CANGAROO III. The results of Cas-A observations nicely illustrate the present situation (Figure 1). Deep observations of Cas-A (over 200 hrs) by the HEGRA CT-System have revealed a TeV gamma-ray flux at a level $``$3% that of the Crab (Aharonian et al. 2001a). Atoyan et al. (2000) used a tri-zone model to characterise areas of different magnetic field and electron transport in the range 0.1 to 1 mG for the electronic channel (IC + Bremsstrahlung), and a total energy of 2$`\times 10^{49}`$ erg in CR hadrons. Here, we can clearly see the limitations of present-day ground-based instruments in sampling such a flux. Owing to the dependence of sensitivity with $`\sqrt{t}`$ it is unlikely that further observations of Cas-A will be carried out. Most importantly, insufficient statistics prevent an accurate estimate of the spectral index, and hence discrimination between hadronic and electronic TeV channels is currently not available. Thus it is apparent that detailed studies of sources with fluxes around 10% Crab will only be accessible after significant improvements particularly in sensitivity. A reduction in energy threshold below the $``$250 GeV available today is also a strong motivation, as it would achieve a large dynamic spectral range, allow studies of SNR with lower energy cutoffs, and of course help in detection of the EGRET unidentified sources.

Overall, since it appears that many TeV upper limits lie not far from the conservative edge of parameter space, it is generally accepted that further reduction in constraints by about a factor 10 as could be obtained from the next generation instruments, would force uncomfortable modifications to current theory.

4. Next Generation Instruments

Next generation instruments in ground-based gamma-ray astronomy aim to achieve roughly one order of magnitude improvement in sensitivity and energy threshold over present instruments.

A reduction in energy threshold has already been demonstrated by those experiments making use of existing solar power facilities with very large reflecting surface area ($`>`$2000 m2) to image the lateral distribution of EAS. Some hadronic background rejection is available based on the expected differences in uniformity of gamma-ray and CR signatures. The CELESTE group have been able to achieve a $``$50 GeV threshold detection of the Crab (de Naurois 2000) and Mrk 421 (Holder 2000). The Crab has also been detected by STACEE (Oser et al. 2001) and GRAAL (Diaz 2001) although at slightly higher energies. Another experiment of this type is Solar-2 (Tümer et al. 1999). Improvements in sensitivity will come from the addition of more mirrors, and possibly improvements in techniques to reject background events.

Direct sampling of EAS particles at ground-level is also possible at TeV energies. The water Čerenkov detector MILAGRO (McCullough 1999) and the air shower array in Tibet operating at very high altitude have produced detections of Mrk 501 (Atkins et al. 1999, Amenomori et al. 2000) and Crab (Amenomori et al. 1999). A nice feature of these detectors is their 24 hr duty cycle and nearly 2$`\pi `$ sr field of view, albeit with angular resolution and collecting area inferior to Čerenkov imaging systems. Future developments in these areas could however provide rather sensitive all-sky monitors at sub-TeV energies.

It appears likely that the most significant improvements will come from systems using the imaging technique described earlier. H.E.S.S. (Hofmann 1999), VERITAS (Lessard 1999) and CANGAROO III (Mori 2000) will employ the stereoscopic imaging technique which permits an array of moderate-size telescopes to achieve arc-minute angular resolution. These systems consist of arrays of $`4`$ telescopes each with $``$100 m2 segmented mirrors and imaging cameras of $``$500 pixels sub-tending $`3^{}`$ fields of view. MAGIC (Lorentz 1999) and MACE (Bhat 2000) will explore the use of very large segmented mirrors ($`>`$200 m2) on a single telescope in order to push the energy threshold below 50 GeV, although additional telescopes may be added after experience with images properties at energies $``$50 GeV is gained. It is expected that H.E.S.S., VERITAS and CANGAROO III will achieve peak gamma-ray detection rates (for a range of spectral indices) at energies $``$100 GeV or slightly lower. Spectral studies should be possible from this threshold energy up to $``$10 TeV, an unprecedented dynamic range for this field. Table 2. summarises the salient features of these next generation imaging instruments, which will commence operation in the years 2002 to 2005.

Instrument Site Mirror(s) Camera Energy Epoch     pixels Thres. (GeV) begin     (resol.)    CANGAROO III Woomera 4x10m 4x512 100 2003     (0.12)    MACE India 1x17m 1x$`>`$800 10 2005     (0.1, 0.2)    MAGIC Phase I La Palma 1x17m 1x577 30 2002     (0.1)    H.E.S.S. Phase I Namibia 4x12m 4x960 100 2002     (0.16)    VERITAS Arizona 7x11m 7x499 75 2005     (0.15)
Table 2. Summary of next generation atmospheric Čerenkov imaging systems approved and/or under construction. Details of each project can be found from references cited in the text.

Along with ground-based techniques, the development of the next space-based instruments at gamma-ray energies GLAST (Gehrels 2000) and X-ray energies (for example XMM-Newton and Chandra) will advance significantly our understanding of SNRs. Arc-second resolution now available from these X-ray satellites is allowing detailed spatial and spectral studies of SNRs and comparisons with radio data, thereby improving greatly the likelihood of disentangling thermal and non-thermal X-ray components.

GLAST will sample the high energy gamma-ray sky at sensitivities and angular resolution an order of magnitude better than that of EGRET. A major goal of GLAST will be to shed light on the $`>`$150 unidentified EGRET sources (Hartman et al. 1999), a number of which are considered SNRs (Romero et al. 1999), and also for related sources such as giant molecular clouds. Certain questions however will not be easily accessible to GLAST. The origin of the Galactic CRs up to the knee will be a question best addressed by ground-based methods operating at higher energies since the electronic and hadronic channels described above require multi-TeV energy particles to produce TeV gamma-rays. The huge collecting area afforded by ground-based techniques gives them a sensitivity advantage over satellite-based gamma-ray systems, although the latter of course operate with much larger fields of view ($`0.5`$ sr) and duty cycles. In the context of probing spectral and morphological properties in SNRs requiring high statistics over a broad energy range, the ground-based systems are ideal instruments.

5. Issues for Future SNR Studies at GeV/TeV Energies

Summarised here are a number of issues considered important for studies of SNRs by the next generation ground-based imaging instruments. Many of the groups building such instruments have, or are now devoting significant effort to these with the use of Monte Carlo simulations in order to optimise astrophysics potential.

1. SNR Detectability: The problem is that SNR will invariably be extended sources. Included in figure 1. is an example sensitivity curve for H.E.S.S. phase I observing point sources, which will be more or less similar to that for VERITAS and CANGAROO-III. The minimum detectable flux from an extended source $`F_{\mathrm{ext}}`$ of size $`\sigma _{\mathrm{src}}`$ may be expressed, assuming Gaussian source morphology:

$`F_{\mathrm{ext}}F_{\mathrm{pt}}\sqrt{(2\pi k\sigma _{\mathrm{src}}^2+s)/(2\pi k\sigma _o^2+s)}`$ (1)

for $`F_{\mathrm{pt}}`$ the point source sensitivity, $`\sigma _o`$ the point spread function of the instrument, $`s`$ the number of signal counts, and $`k`$ the background count density (total background counts $`b=k\pi \sigma ^2`$), after gamma-ray selection. This equation accounts for the increase in statistical uncertainty of the background with size, contribution from the signal, and results from rearrangement of Eq. 5 in Li & Ma (1983), setting ON=$`b+s`$, OFF=$`b`$ and $`\alpha =1.0`$. For example a SNR of radius $`\sigma _{\mathrm{src}}0.5^{}`$ viewed by an instrument with $`\sigma _o=0.1^{}`$, an increase in minimum detectable flux by a factor $``$5 is expected for signals with $`s`$=200 and $`b`$=800 counts Here I have assumed $`b`$=800 background counts fall within the region $`\sigma _o=0.1^{}`$ over 10 hours observation time, derived from a post-gamma-ray shape-selected trigger rate of 5 Hz (assuming a shape selection efficiency for background is 1%) over a region of radius 1.5, as might be expected for H.E.S.S. and the like. Then, $`s`$=200 is chosen to give a $`5\sigma `$ point source significance.. Equation 1 neglects contributions from systematic uncertainties in estimating $`b`$ arising from, for example instrument performance and sky condition changes during data taking. Such errors increase with $`\sigma _{\mathrm{src}}^2`$ making this potentially a dominant term if they exceed $``$ few percent and the source is large. Instrument performance nevertheless is often able to meet this criterion via diligent screening of data quality.

2. Energy Resolution and Sensitivity: With point source sensitivities approaching 10-13 erg cm-2 s-1, and energy resolution $`15`$%, the spectra of sources with $``$10% Crab flux will be determined by H.E.S.S., VERITAS, CANGAROO-III etc. after reasonable observation time. It should therefore be possible to discriminate the hadronic and electronic components of TeV emission, given sufficient statistics at certain energy domains where spectral differences at maximised. IC and also Bremsstrahlung spectra are quite sensitive to SNR age and magnetic field values due to electron cooling, leading to characteristic IC ’turnovers’ in spectral index which appear at multi-GeV to multi-TeV energies. The hadronic component will reflect more just the upper energy limit to particle energies. Spectral differences may therefore be most apparent at the low and high energy end of instrument sensitivities, highlighting the need to achieve a wide dynamic range. The effect of electron cooling for example due to the high $`B`$ field is evident in figure 1.

3. Angular Resolution: The hadronic channel for TeV emission in SNRs will generally trace regions of high ambient density and regions where the SNR shock has interacted with a molecular cloud, leading to distinct morphological TeV features. The electronic channel morphology on the other hand will depend strongly on the magnetic field. For example Aharonian & Atoyan (1999) argue that for SN1006, the electronic IC TeV emission would essentially fill the SNR under current assumptions about the magnetic field $`B10`$ $`\mu `$G. Instrument angular resolution will play an important role in discriminating between TeV components. Since the angular resolution is mildly energy-dependent (a factor $``$2 improvement is generally achieved at the high energy end), it may be possible to perform such studies better at energies well away from threshold, aligning with the arguments concerning spectral differences in point 2 above.

4. Field of View and Acceptance SNR sizes generally exceed comfortably the instrument point spread function. A wide radius ($`1.5^{}`$) achieving a roughly flat gamma-ray acceptance is therefore desirable. This aspect is also very important in searches for the EGRET unidentified sources, where positional uncertainties of $`1^{}`$ are noted.

6. Conclusions

Over the past decade, ground-based observations of SNRs at TeV gamma-ray energies have been carried out in an attempt to establish them as the primary sites of Galactic CR’s. With the exceptions of three cases, studies of SNRs at TeV energies have revealed non-detections with upper limits at levels of the order 10% Crab. Such limits do constrain models on CR production in SNRs, but generally lie close to the conservative edge of the rather large parameter space available. The next generation ground-based instruments employing the imaging atmospheric Čerenkov technique from $``$50 GeV to 10 TeV are expected however in conjunction with new X-ray satellites and the forthcoming space-based gamma-ray instrument GLAST, to sample the sky at sufficient sensitivity and resolution to provide serious constraints on the theory that SNRs are responsible for Galactic CRs. Negative results from SNR observations with these ground-based instruments, would confront us with a number of not necessarily exclusive consequences, assuming that we retain the diffusive shock acceleration framework: (1) Limiting the energy content in accelerated particles, particularly hadrons, in SNRs to $`E_{\mathrm{cr}}10^{49}`$ erg; (2) CR source spectra generally steeper than that predicted from current theory, (3) our understanding of SNR dynamics is clearly lacking, (4) and/or that alternative sources contribute significantly to CR acceleration. For the last point Galactic sources such as pulsar-driven nebulae or plerions and microquasars/X-ray binaries, all of which appear capable of maintaining particle acceleration at sufficient luminosity for very long times, may be alternatives. Definite answers concerning these type of questions should be available not long after 2002, when the first of the next-generation instruments is fully online.

Acknowledgements I would like to thank the organising committee of the GAME 2001 workshop for the invitation, and gratefully acknowledge receipt of a von Humboldt Fellowship. F.A. Aharonian, D. Horns and H.J. Völk are thanked for helpful comments.

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# Location of narrowband spikes in solar flares

## 1 Introduction

The acceleration of large numbers of particles in flares is an old, major enigma in solar physics. Not only the question concerning the predominant mechanism is unsolved, even the location of acceleration is unclear.

Nevertheless, over the past decade crucial observations on small relatives of flares have accumulated. They evidence that short narrowband radio bursts in meter wavelengths are signatures of the acceleration process. Benz et al. (1996) have shown that narrowband metric spikes in general correlate with type III bursts starting at slightly lower frequencies. The metric spikes have been found by Paesold et al. (2001) to be located generally on the extension of type III trajectories and suggest a model of energy release taking place in or close to the spike sources. Modeling coronal densities (Paesold et al. 2001) and spatially resolved observations of metric spike events (Krucker et al. 1995; 1997) put the sources at altitudes of $`2\times 10^{10}`$cm and more. Similarly, type I radio bursts in noise storms have been found e.g. by Raulin et al. (1994) to be accompanied by a delayed continuum radio emission and a soft X-ray brightening. The similarity of spikes and type I bursts has been emphasized previously (Benz 1985). Both noise storms and metric spike/type III bursts are not associated with regular, hard X-ray and centimeter-wave emitting flares. The short duration and the narrow bandwidth suggest a small source size and therefore a high radio brightness temperature (order of $`10^{15}`$ K). Only a coherent mechanism can account for the emission, but none of the published mechanisms is generally accepted. A model proposed by Benz & Wentzel (1981) suggests type I radiation to originate in the acceleration region, where waves driven by unstable currents couple with Langmuir waves produced by accelerated electron beams. Similar processes have been proposed for narrowband spikes in the decimeter range (cf. below).

The situation is much less clear for narrowband spikes at decimeter wavelength. The term ’narrowband, millisecond spikes’ has been introduced for them referring to narrowband (few percent of the center frequency) and short (few tens of ms) peaks above 1 GHz (Droege 1977; Slottje 1978). Originally, they were reported to occur in the rise phase of centimeter radio bursts and thus to be associated with major flares. The association rate with hard X-ray flares is high (Benz & Kane 1986; Güdel et al. 1991). However, a delay of spike groups and hard X-ray peaks of the order of a few seconds has been noted (Aschwanden & Güdel 1992). Moreover, spikes have been discovered also in decimeter type IV bursts occurring after the HXR emitting phase of flares (Isliker & Benz 1994). Contrary to their relatives at meter waves, decimetric spikes do not correlate with type III bursts.

The emission process of decimetric spikes is highly controversial. Originally, a loss-cone instability of trapped electrons has been proposed to produce electron cyclotron maser emission at the footpoints of flare loops (Holman et al. 1980; Melrose & Dulk 1982). To avoid the assumption of high magnetic field strength in the source, the model has been changed to emission of upper-hybrid and bernstein modes (Willes & Robinson 1996). The scheme can interpret occasional harmonic emission in decimeter spikes (Benz & Güdel 1987; Krucker & Benz 1994). Alternatively, Tajima et al. (1990) and Güdel & Wentzel (1993) proposed the spike sources to be in the acceleration regions of flares and to result from waves produced by the acceleration process.

Here we set out to test the predictions of the two emission models concerning the source position of narrowband decimeter spikes. In the loss-cone scenario, the spike emission is a secondary phenomenon located near the footpoints of flaring loops. Hard X-ray sources, produced by precipitating electrons have been found at footpoints of such loops (Duijveman et al. 1982). Thus the loss-cone scenario predicts (i) spikes to occur at similar locations when seen from Earth. (ii) As hard X-rays often have double sources, the spikes may behave similarly (as proposed by Conway & Willes 2000). In the acceleration-region scenario on the other hand, the spikes are expected to originate from single sources at some distance from the footpoints, at higher altitude, possibly at the top of loops, and to be single sources.

Previously, Gary et al. (1991) have reported imaging observations of possible decimetric spikes at 2.8 GHz originating some 25” from the gyrosynchrotron source. An observation at 5.7 GHz of a limb flare reported by Altyntsev et al. (1995) suggests the spikes to be located within the region of gyrosynchrotron emission about 35 Mm above the photosphere. These observations did not have spectral resolution to confirm the narrowbandedness of the emission. As there are several other types of short duration coherent emission in the decimeter range, the identification of these observations as narrowband spikes remains controversial.

Here we start out from spike events that are well identified by spectrometer observations and locate their position with simultaneous measurements by an interferometer observing at the frequencies of spike emission. The position of the radio emission is then compared with imaging observations in hard X-rays, if available. Finally, the sources are put into the context of the thermal coronal plasma and field geometry as imaged by coronal EUV lines and soft X-rays.

## 2 Instruments and Observations

### 2.1 The Phoenix-2 spectrometer

The Phoenix-2 spectrometer operated by the ETH Zurich in Bleien (Switzerland) since 1998 is continuously recording radio data from sunrise to sunset. The full Sun flux density and circular polarization are measured by the frequency-agile receiver in the range from 0.1-4.0 GHz at a time resolution of 500 $`\mu `$s for single channel measurements. A description of the instrument can be found in Messmer et al. (1999). The data used herein were recorded at a bandwidth of 1 MHz and a time resolution of 100 ms in the frequency range from 220 to 553 MHz, chosen for collaboration with the Nançay Radioheliograph. In addition, the frequencies of 1415 and 2800 MHz were recorded. As Phoenix-2 polarization measurements were intermittent and partially unreliable in the observing period, the NRH data were used.

### 2.2 The Nançay Radioheliograph (NRH)

The 2D-imaging radioheliograph in Nançay (France) is a 43 element interferometer dedicated to solar observations (Kerdraon & Delouis 1996). Up to 10 frequencies in the range from 150-450 MHz can be observed simultaneously at a maximum number of 200 images per second. The antennas are placed in two perpendicular arrays and digitally correlated in 576 channels. The Stokes parameters I and V are measured. The observing bandwidth is 700 kHz. Data for this analysis were taken at the center frequencies of 164.0, 236.6, 327.0, 410.5, and 432.0 MHz, and with a mean time resolution of 120 ms. The relative accuracy of source positions is limited by noise and digitization (pixel size).

### 2.3 The Hard X-ray Telescope

Data from the Hard X-ray Telescope (HXT, Kosugi et al. 1991) on the Yohkoh spacecraft are used when available.

### 2.4 Coronal EUV and Soft X-ray Observations

Observations of the thermal background plasma of the corona are used to locate the spike sources and hard X-ray emission in the active region and the thermal flare plasma. Simultaneous observations in either coronal EUV lines or soft X-rays were preferred. If not available, proxies close in time were used. Yohkoh, EIT, and TRACE took the data that were finally employed. The Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT) on-board Yohkoh (Tsuneta et al. 1991) provided full and partial disk images in the 0.25 - 4 keV energy range with pixel sizes down to 2.45”. Five different filters can be positioned in front of the detector array to estimate isothermal temperatures and emission measure. The Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SoHO) is a normal-incidence, multilayered mirror instrument (Delaboudinière et al. 1995) having a spatial resolution of 2.6”. We used mostly the wavelength band at 195 Å that includes a line of Fe XII, sensitive to coronal plasma in the temperatures range 0.5 to 2.0 $`\times 10^6`$K. TRACE data (Handy et al. 1999) at 195 Å were also used.

### 2.5 Selection of Events

Calibrated data from observations of Phoenix-2 were searched for decimetric spike emission. Decimetric spikes are easy to distinguish from metric spikes in dynamic spectrograms. They appear in clusters of spikes over a total bandwidth with a maximum-to-minimum frequency ratio of more than a factor of two. The minimum frequency is usually higher than 300 MHz. Only spike events were selected that included at least one frequency observed by the Nançay interferometer to locate the radio emission. This requirement limited the choice of events to the lowest frequencies where decimetric spikes occur.

Five events were found in the recent data. Three of them occurred on the same day, but all had different appearances in the spectrogram.
2000/07/12: Decimeter spikes appeared in similar clusters at the times around 10:46, 10:53, 11:01, and 11:04 UT in the frequency range from about 400 to beyond the maximum observing frequency at 553 MHz. The associated flare was of GOES class X1.9. The centimeter waves peaked at 10:31 - 33 UT, but lasted until 11:07 UT at 15.4 GHz (Solar and Geophysical Data). San Vito reported an H$`\alpha `$ flare location of N17E27. The 2800 MHz flux showed a small, gradual enhancement peaking at the time of the spike emission.
2000/07/12: A different group of spike clusters was apparently associated with an H$`\alpha `$ flare location at N17E18 peaking at 11:49 UT. The first three spike clusters, at 11:55, 11:58 and 12:01 UT have similar spectra. Spikes are observed in the range from 250 – 500 MHz. Above that frequency a continuum emission is associated. The fourth event at 12:11 UT shows spike emission up to the limiting frequency of 553 MHz. Again, weak 2.8 GHz emission was associated.
2000/07/12: At 13:39 UT a cluster of spikes similar to the forth cluster in the previous event occurred. There was very little flux registered in the 2.8 GHz channel, but a simultaneous enhancement can be noticed. Contrary to the previous events, the polarization of the cluster is not complete, but amounts to 75$`\pm `$10 % left circular.
2000/07/20: A cluster of spikes was recorded starting at 12:05 UT. A possibly related soft X-ray event had its maximum some 10 minutes before. No centimeter wave emission was reported, but the 2.8 GHz channel of the Phoenix-2 spectrometer recorded a weak, exactly simultaneous enhancement during the spike activity. The polarization of the spikes is intermediate (40$`\pm `$10 % left circular).
2000/09/23: A centimeter burst was reported up to 8.8 GHz, peaking at 11:05 UT, the start time of the spikes. Their circular polarization is low (0 – 40 % left). At 2.8 GHz the emission reached the maximum at the same time as the spikes.

For none of the events a coincident major peak in hard X-rays or centimeter emission has been reported. We note that all selected events occurred after the main flare peak. Although this is not unusual, it is not consistent with the initial reports of narrowband spikes at decimeter waves that were made at higher frequencies (cf. Section 1). Nevertheless, the selected events show a gradual enhancement at 2.8 GHz in all cases. It is simultaneous with the spikes within seconds and may be interpreted as gyrosynchrotron emission.

High polarization of spikes is not untypical for decimetric spikes near the center of the solar disk. Beyond about 260 arcseconds from disk center, intermediate and low polarizations have also been reported (Güdel & Zlobec 1991)

Examples of radio spectrograms of decimetric spikes are presented in Figs. 1, 2, 6, and 8. When seen at high time resolution, the individual spikes do not appear to be different. However the appearance of the cluster and the context of other radio emissions vary considerably among these examples. In Figure 1 the spikes extend over a relatively narrow range of frequencies, and a decimetric continuum extending beyond 1415 MHz was simultaneously emitted at higher frequency. Figure 2 presents an example of a very rich cluster of spikes that occurred only 16 minutes later than the event of Fig.1. Even richer was the event at 13:39 UT. Individual spikes were less an less visible in the three events on the same day.

## 3 Results

### 3.1 Positions of Narrowband Spikes

Figure 1 shows the dynamic spectrum (total power, Stokes I) from 220 MHz to 553 MHz of the first spike cluster in the second event on 2000/07/12. Spikes can be found in the frequency range from 250 to 450 MHz. At higher frequencies, a broadband continuum appears simultaneously. Three radio sources were seen at 327 MHz on the solar disk at the time of the spikes (cf. time profiles in Figure 1). However, only the strongest source correlates with the spikes seen in the spectrogram. It is indicated in Fig.3.

A very different cluster of spikes is shown in Fig. 2. It occurred 15 minutes after the spikes shown in Fig. 1 and seems to be also part of the second event on 2000/07/12. The cluster contains much more spikes, which extend from about 250 MHz to beyond 550 MHz. Individual spikes have bandwidth and duration similar to the ones in Fig. 1.

The positions of the two spike clusters are shown in Fig. 3. The centroids of the sources at 327, 410, and 432 (only observable in group 2) are coincident within the scatter in time. The temporal scatter of the centroid indicated by the error bars varies with frequency and event. It is usually about 11”, given by the pixel size used for image reconstruction, and often exceeding the statistical scatter of about 3” (depending on flux). The two clusters originate from different sources that are 140” apart. Both are not located in regions of high soft X-ray emissivity or near bright footpoints. On the other hand they are not associated with the brightest flare loops either. They rather seem to be located close to diffuse soft X-ray features, similar to metric spikes (Paesold et al. 2001, Fig. 6).

Figures 1 to 3 indicate diversity of narrowband spike events in the dynamics of the same flaring region. The positional information suggests that the radio emission originates in different loops.

### 3.2 Comparison with Hard X-rays

Figure 4 shows the coincident positions of two spike groups in relation to the hard X-rays at peak flux and the thermal plasma. The first group of spikes on July 12, 2000, appeared 8 minutes after an X1.9 flare and during a time of enhanced hard X-ray emission. The spike positions are relatively stable in time and very similar in frequency. The spikes were located at 80” from the hard X-ray maximum. In fact, they were farther away from the main flare site than in the following, much smaller flare (Fig.3). The spikes originated from a region of low emissivity. The image of Fig.4 shows the spikes in apparent association with an amorphous patch of weak soft X-ray emission, possibly a faint small loop system south of the hard X-ray source. If the spikes were located at footpoints of loops, they would not be in the same loops as the ones containing the hard X-ray emitting electrons.

### 3.3 Comparison with Changes of the Thermal Coronal Plasma

More structure of the active region can be seen in Fig.5 taken by TRACE during the occurrence of the third spike event on the same day. The EUV observations in Fe XII outline the thermal plasma in the temperature range 0.5 - 2.0 MK. Images at intervals of 40 seconds are available. Figure 5 displays a difference image where regions that increased their emission during the spike event are shown bright. A brightening indicates an increase in the emission measure of plasma in the sensitive range by heating and filling flux tubes with additional material or cooling of material previously hotter than 2 MK. In both cases it points to a location of rapid change.

Within the two minutes duration of the spike event, two major brightenings occurred: a thin, long loop extending to the Northwest and a loop extending to the Northeast, possibly shortened by projection. The spike centroids are in-between, overlaying approximately a bright soft X-ray structure recorded by SXT a few minutes before the event.

The event of Fig.5 is the only one in which the centroid positions at the various frequencies do not coincide. The sequence of positions is according to frequency, indicating a real effect. The spikes form a rich cluster in the spectrogram extending beyond the spectrum observed by Phoenix-2. In the low frequency part, drifting chains of spikes can be seen. As previously noted, this cluster differs from the previous ones in its lower circular polarization. It cannot be excluded that this cluster represents a different type of emission.

### 3.4 Narrowband Spikes and Other Radio Observations

Figure 6 presents a rich cluster of spikes at exceptionally low frequencies. However, the latter did not exclude an associated 2.8 GHz emission that correlates well with the spikes and peaks at the maximum of the spike activity.

The spike centroids observed at two frequencies coincide within the error bars defined by the positional scatter of the sources in time. Figure 7 shows the position in a region at a large distance from the main active region in an area of very low Fe XII emissivity. All nearby loops appear to bend away from this position. The average position is more than 30” apart from the nearest structure discernible at 195 Å.

In addition, a group of more than 15 type III bursts occurred between 12:04:55 and 12:05:25 UT early in the event, but simultaneous with weak spike activity at lower frequency. The bursts have negative frequency drifts, indicative of electron beams propagating upward in the corona. The type III position at 410 MHz is about 320” Northwest of the spikes. Though they occur in the same active region at nearly the same time, the relation between the two types of radio emission is unclear.

The spikes on 2000/09/23 (Fig.8) were at relatively high frequencies. Nevertheless, a few spikes did occur at the highest frequencies observable by the NRH. The source positions could reliably be determined from the comparison of identified spikes in the spectrogram and the time profile of the various sources observed on single frequencies.

The positions of the spikes at 410 and 432 MHz are identical within the scatter in time. They are located (in projection) on the top of a bright soft X-ray loop (Fig.9). The associated loop has a height of about 300” (a third of a solar radius in projection). Loops can be seen further out in overexposed images but are much fainter.

More than a hundred pulsations with regular periods of 0.95 s can be seen in the spectrum (Fig.8) from 310 to 440 MHz. Spikes and pulsations overlap between 400 and 440 MHz They can easily be separated in the image. The sources of the pulsations at 327 and 410 MHz are found Northeast of the spikes, separated by 60” - 235”. Furthermore, the positions of the pulsations at different frequencies are significantly displaced from each other, even when measured at the same time. In none of them are nearby loop tops visible. The positions rather correspond (in projection) to the middle part of very large, bright loops possibly of the same loop system.

Decimetric pulsations are generally interpreted by loss-cone emission of trapped energetic electrons (review by Kuijpers 1980). The hypothesis suggests that most emission occurs at intermediate loop heights where the upper hybrid frequency matches a harmonic of the electron gyrofrequency. This scenario is supported by the present observation.

## 4 Discussion and Conclusions

The requirement to choose decimetric spike events at low frequency to be observable with the NRH has produced a selection of five events that all occurred in the flare decay phase. The analysis indicates that

1. Generally, spike sources are not found at footpoints of flare loops as indicated by soft X-ray or coronal EUV emissions. Only one case (Fig.7) seems to be nearer to footpoints than loop tops, but the footpoints are not those of the main flare loops. There are two clear cases (Figs. 4 and 9) and three possible cases (two in Fig. 3 and one in Fig. 5) of a coincidence with a loop top in projection.

2. Consistent with this, we find the spike sources at very distant locations from the site of hard X-ray emission (Fig.4). The angular distance from the main soft X-ray or EUV loops is 20” to 400”. Only in one case (Fig.5), does the spike sources coincide with strong soft X-ray emission, which may be a projection effect.

3. None of the spike sources was found to be double at a given time.

4. The spike sources, if measured at different frequencies, appear to be located at the same site within the intrinsic scatter they have in time (Figs. 4, 7, and 9). There is however a clear exception (Fig.5), where the positions are spread according to frequency.

5. There may be more than one source of spike emission in the course of an event. In Fig. 3 a case is shown where two clusters separated by 16 minutes in time originate from widely different places in the same active region.

6. Other radio emissions at the same frequency may originate at far away positions, such as observed for simultaneous type III bursts (Fig. 6) and decimetric pulsations (Fig. 8).

The fact that the spike sources are found far away from the major flare site may be related to the low frequency events we have selected. Combined with their occurrence after the main flare phase, they are unlikely to be the main sites of flare electron acceleration. Nevertheless, these spike sources cannot be excluded as secondary acceleration sites as they have all been associated with 2.8 GHz radiation of potential gyrosynchrotron origin. Thus we suggest that the observed spikes are related to the rearrangement of the coronal magnetic field after the main flare at lower altitude. They may be indicative of post-flare high-corona acceleration sites.

Narrowband spikes at decimetric frequencies have been reported in the flare rise phase and main phase, even at low frequencies (Benz 1985). It will be interesting to investigate the above findings on the location of spikes earlier in the flare and at higher decimetric frequencies. More sensitive and precise information on hard X-rays are urgently needed. Such a work is well suited for the pending HESSI mission.

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank Christian Monstein, Michael Arnold and Peter Messmer (ETH Zurich) for helping to run the Phoenix-2 observations. The evaluation of the Phoenix spectrograms was made using software developed by A. Csillaghy. The Swiss National Science Foundation financially supports the work at ETH Zurich (grant No. 2000-061559.00). The Nançay Radio Observatory is funded by the French Ministry of Education, the CNRS and the Région Centre. We acknowledge data from Yohkoh/HXT, Yohkoh/SXT, EIT and TRACE. The Yohkoh mission is operated by ISAS and an international cooperation including NASA and SERC. CNES, NASA, and the Belgian SPPS funded the EIT instrument on ESA’s SoHO spacecraft. TRACE is a NASA small explorer mission.