Development of electromagnetic cascading in the Sun's magnetic field

Department of Physics, Saitama University, Urawa 338, Japan

Corresponding author: A. Mahrous, ayman@crsgm1.crinoue.phy.saitama-u.ac.jp

Received: 23 July 2001
Accepted: 24 January 2002

Abstract

The study of particle cascading initiated by Extremely High Energy (EHE) photons in the Sun's magnetic field offers us an opportunity to study some processes of astrophysical importance in space. This opportunity has been particularly useful in investigating the photon content in the EHE cosmic ray spectrum. The processes of magnetic pair creation and photon splitting are the basic mechanisms taken into account in our Monte Carlo simulation code. Such processes have been simulated for primary photons in the magnetic field near the Sun to study the characteristics of the cascading of these extraordinary showers. Upon simulation, such cascading particles produced by primary photons with an energy ≥10 eV could be detected on the Earth's surface within a solid angle of  sr from the Sun's position. The characteristics of cascading initiated by photons in such a strong magnetic field near the Sun are discussed.