The radiation belt of the Sun

Abstract

For a given solar magnetic field, the near-Sun (phase-space) density of cosmic ray electrons and positrons of energy above about 10GeV can be calculated from first principles, without any assumptions about the cosmic ray diffusion. This is because the sunlight Compton drag must be more important than diffusion. If the solar magnetic field has an appreciable dipole component, the electron/positron density should have a belt-like dent, perhaps extending to several solar radii. The belt structure appears because the quasi-bound orbits are depopulated by the sunlight Compton drag.