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来自地球大气层的伽马射线闪(TGF)常伴随雷暴、闪电活动, 现已成为宇宙线物理和大气物理交叉学科中的研究热点. 相对论逃逸电子雪崩机制(RREA)被普遍认为可解释卫星和地面实验中伴随闪电先导过程的TGF现象. 本文基于CORSIKA软件包, 模拟了宇宙线次级电子在雷暴云强电场中引发的RREA过程, 并研究了RREA电子的强度和能量分布. 结果表明, 随着雷暴云内电场强度和电场区垂直尺度的增加, RREA电子数目均呈指数增长; 发生RREA机制的雪崩距离常数(λ)随电场强度的增加而减小, 当电场为–1600 V/cm和–3000 V/cm时, λ分别约为282 m和69 m. RREA电子的能谱随电场强度和电场区垂直尺度的增加而逐渐变软, 其平均能量随电场强度的增加而增加, 当雷暴云内电场区垂直尺度大于400 m时, RREA电子的平均能量逐渐趋于稳定. 模拟发现, 电场为–3000 V/cm、电场区的垂直尺度为800 m时, RREA电子的平均能量约为11.7 MeV. 本文通过蒙特卡罗方法复现了大气中难以直接观测的RREA过程, 该模拟结果为研究TGF源区特征提供了重要信息, 为地面实验探测下行TGF提供了线索, 并有助于研究大气中闪电的触发机制.
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关键词:
- 宇宙线 /
- 相对论逃逸电子雪崩机制 /
- 雷暴电场 /
- 蒙特卡罗模拟
Terrestrial Gamma-ray flashes (TGFs) originating from the Earth’s atmosphere, accompanied by thunderstorms and lightning activity, are one of the hot spots in the interdisciplinary of cosmic ray and atmospheric physics. Over the years, satellite experiments have detected thousands of upward TGFs during thunderstorms, while ground-based experiments have observed some downward TGFs. Nowadays, it is widely believed that TGFs accompanying lightning leaders observed by satellite-based and ground-based experiments involve relativistic runaway electron avalanche (RREA) production. Due to triggering the relativistic runaway electron avalanche (RREA) process needing a very large (AEF) strength and region, it is difficult to study the RREA process through ground-based experiments. In this paper, CORSIKA 7.7410 software package, combined with a vertically uniform electric field model, is adopted to simulate the intensity and energy distribution of RREA electrons in thundercloud with different electric field strengths induced by seed electrons and the secondary electrons in extensive air shower (EAS) from vertical protons with different primary energies. The results show that the number of RREA electrons increases exponentially with the thickness of the thunderclouds increasing, and also increases exponentially with the electric field strength rising. After passing through the atmosphere with an electric field of –3000 V/cm and a thickness of 800 m, the number of secondary electrons in RREA process increases by approximately 3×104 times. The characteristic length of avalanche (λ) decreases as the electric field strength increases. When the electric field is –1600 V/cm and –3000 V/cm, the λ is approximately ~282 m and ~69 m, respectively. The energy spectrum of RREA electrons gradually softens with the increase of layer thickness and strength of electric field, and their average energy increases with the increase of electric field strength, when the thundercloud thickness exceeds 400 m, the mean energy of RREA electrons gradually stabilizes. When secondary particles pass through a thundercloud with an electric field strength of –3000 V/cm and a thickness of 800 m, the mean energy of RREA electrons is approximately 11.7 MeV. Through the Monte Carlo simulations, the RREA process, which is difficult to observe directly in the atmosphere, is successfully simulated. The simulation results provide important information for studying the characteristics of TGF source regions, offer clues for detecting downward TGF in ground-based experiments, and contribute to the research on the triggering mechanism of lightning in the atmosphere. In addition, our simulation results are expected to elucidate the relationship between TGF and lightning activity, promoting interdisciplinary research in the fields of atmospheric physics and cosmic ray physics.-
Keywords:
- cosmic rays /
- relativistic runaway electron avalanche /
- thunderstorm electric field /
- Monte Carlo simulations
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图 1 种子电子(100 MeV)在不同大气电场中的簇射过程
Fig. 1. Cascade process of seed electrons (100 MeV) in different electric fields.
图 2 在–3000 V/cm电场下, 不同原初能量种子电子产生RREA电子的能量分布
Fig. 2. Energy distributions of RREA electrons induced by seed electron for different primary energies in –3000 V/cm.
图 3 种子电子产生RREA电子的平均能量随电场区垂直尺度(a)和电场强度(b)的变化关系
Fig. 3. Mean energy of RREA electrons induced by seed electron as a function of the layer thickness (a) and strength (b) of the electric field.
图 4 不同原初能量质子簇射的次级电子数目随雷暴云内电场区垂直尺度的变化
Fig. 4. Number of secondary electrons induced by protons as a function of the thickness of the electric field layer for different primary energies.
图 5 雪崩距离常数$ \lambda $与电场强度的关系
Fig. 5. Avalanche length $ \lambda $ as a function of electric field strength.
图 6 不同原初能量质子簇射的次级电子数目随雷暴电场的变化
Fig. 6. Number of secondary electrons induced by protons as a function of the electric field strength for different primary energies.
图 7 不同原初能量下$ {\text{Ln(}}{N_{{\text{re}}}}/{N_0}) $与雪崩电场倍数$ \delta $的关系
Fig. 7. $ {\text{Ln}}({N_{{\text{re}}}}/{N_0}) $ as a function of different values of $ \delta $ for different primary energies.
图 8 原初质子(10 TeV)簇射的次级电子在不同电场强度下的能量分布
Fig. 8. Energy distribution of secondary electrons induced by protons (10 TeV) with respect to electric field strength.
图 9 原初质子(10 TeV)簇射的次级电子在不同雷暴云厚度下的能量分布
Fig. 9. Energy distribution of secondary electrons induced by protons (10 TeV) with respect to thickness of the electric field layer.
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