Low-energy cutoffs in electron spectra of solar flares: Statistical survey

The Reuven Ramaty High Energy Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) X-ray data base (February 2002 – May 2006) has been searched to find solar flares with weak thermal components and flat photon spectra. Using a regularized inversion technique, we determine the mean electron flux distribution from count spectra for a selection of events with flat pho- ton spectra in the 15 – 20 keV energy range. Such spectral behavior is expected for photon spectra either affected by photospheric albedo or produced by electron spectra with an ab- sence of electrons in a given energy range (e.g., a low-energy cutoff in the mean electron spectra of nonthemal particles). We have found 18 cases that exhibit a statistically signifi- cant local minimum (a dip) in the range of 13 – 19 keV. The positions and spectral indices of events with low-energy cutoff indicate that such features are likely to be the result of photo- spheric albedo. It is shown that if the isotropic albedo correction is applied, all low-energy cutoffs in the mean electron spectrum are removed, and hence the low-energy cutoffs in the mean electron spectrum of solar flares above ∼ 12 keV cannot be viewed as real features. If low-energy cutoffs exist in the mean electron spectra, their energies should be less than ∼ 12 keV