Solar Flares: Gamma Rays

Abstract

We briefly review the theory of gamma ray production in solar flares and present the highlights of the observations and their implications. Specifically: (i) the gamma ray data show that a large fraction of the released flare energy is in accelerated ions, mostly around 1 MeV/nucleon; (ii) the accelerated He-3, heavy ion, and relativistic electron abundances are enriched, implying that the particle acceleration is dominated by stochastic gyroresonant interactions with plasma turbulence; (iii) there is evidence for the enhancement of the abundances of ambient chromospheric elements with low first ionization potentials; (iv) the observed Li-7 and Be-7 lines, at 0.429 MeV and 0.478 MeV due to alpha-alpha interactions, show that both the accelerated alpha particle and the ambient He abundances are significantly enhanced.