Modeling Hadronic Gamma-Ray Emissions from Solar Flares and Prospects for Detecting Nonthermal Signatures from Protostars

Abstract

We investigate gamma-ray emission in the impulsive phase of solar flares and the detectability of nonthermal signatures from protostellar flares. Energetic solar flares emit high-energy gamma rays of GeV energies, but their production mechanism and emission site are still unknown. Young stellar objects, including protostars, also exhibit luminous X-ray flares, but the triggering mechanism of the flaring activity is still unclear owing to the strong obscuration. Nonthermal signatures in millimeter/submillimeter and gamma-ray bands are useful to probe protostellar flares owing to their strong penetration power. We develop a nonthermal emission model of the impulsive phase of solar flares, where cosmic-ray protons accelerated at the termination shock produce high-energy gamma rays via hadronuclear interaction with the evaporation plasma. This model can reproduce gamma-ray data in the impulsive phase of a solar flare. We apply our model to protostellar flares and show that the Cherenkov Telescope Array will be able to detect gamma rays of TeV energies if particle acceleration in protostellar flares is efficient. Nonthermal electrons accelerated together with protons can emit strong millimeter and submillimeter signals via synchrotron radiation, whose power is consistent with the energetic millimeter/submillimeter transients observed from young stars. Future gamma-ray and millimeter/submillimeter observations from protostars, coordinated with a hard X-ray observation, will unravel the nonthermal particle production and triggering mechanism of protostellar flares.

Keywords

• Solar flares
• Stellar flares
• Protostars
• Gamma-ray transient sources
• Non-thermal radiation sources
• Radio transient sources