Universe (May 2022)

GeV Proton Detection in the 8 November 2000 Solar Event

  • Ruiguang Wang,
  • Zhongqiang Yu,
  • Yuqian Ma,
  • Linkai Ding,
  • Qingqi Zhu,
  • Zhiguo Yao,
  • Xinhua Ma,
  • Yupeng Xu,
  • Changgen Yang

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/universe8050287
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8, no. 5
p. 287

Abstract

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In this study, we analyze the L3 precision muon spectrometer data from November 2000. The results showed that a 4.7σ muon excess appeared at a time coincident with the solar flare of 8 November 2000. This muon excess corresponded to primary protons above 40 GeV, coming from a sky cell of solid angle 0.048 sr. The probability of being a background fluctuation was estimated to be about 0.1%. It is interesting and noteworthy that an M-class solar flare may also accelerate solar protons to such high energies.

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