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We use the Monte Carlo particle physics code FLUKA (Fluktuierende Kaskade) to calculate $\gamma$-ray spectra expected from solar flare energetic ion distributions. The FLUKA code includes robust physics-based models for electromagnetic, hadronic and nuclear interactions, sufficiently detailed for it to be a useful tool for calculating nuclear de-excitation, positron annihilation and neutron capture line fluxes and shapes, as well as $\approx \; {\rm GeV}$ continuum radiation from pion decay products. We show nuclear de-excitation $\gamma$-ray line model spectra from a range of assumed primary accelerated ion distributions and find them to be in good agreement with those found using the code of Murphy et al. (2009). We also show full $\gamma$-ray model spectra which exhibit all the typical structures of $\gamma$-ray spectra observed in solar flares. From these model spectra we build templates which are incorporated into the software package Objective Spectral Executive (OSPEX) and used to fit the combined Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM)/Large Area Telescope (LAT) spectrum of the 2010 June 12 solar flare, providing a statistically acceptable result. To the best of our knowledge, the fit carried out with the FLUKA templates for the full $\gamma$-ray spectrum can be regarded as the first attempt to use a single code to implement a self-consistent treatment of the several spectral components in the photon energy range from $\approx 100$s ${\rm keV}$ to $\approx 100$s ${\rm MeV}$., Comment: Accepted for publication in Solar Physics

The deduction from solar flare X-ray photon spectroscopic data of the energy dependent model-independent spectral index is considered as an inverse problem. Using the well developed regularization approach we analyze the energy dependency of spectral index for a high resolution energy spectrum provided by Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI). The regularization technique produces much smoother derivatives while avoiding additional errors typical of finite differences. It is shown that observations imply a spectral index varying significantly with energy, in a way that also varies with time as the flare progresses. The implications of these findings are discussed in the solar flare context., Comment: 13 pages; 5 figures, Solar Physics in press

Finite thermal velocity modifications to electron slowing-down rates may be important for the deduction of solar flare total electron energy. Here we treat both slowing-down and velocity diffusion of electrons in the corona at flare temperatures, for the case of a simple, spatially homogeneous source. Including velocity diffusion yields a consistent treatment of both `accelerated' and `thermal' electrons. It also emphasises that one may not invoke finite thermal velocity target effects on electron lifetimes without simultaneously treating the contribution to the observed X-ray spectrum from thermal electrons. We present model calculations of the X-ray spectra resulting from injection of a power-law energy distribution of electrons into a source with finite temperature. Reducing the power-law distribution low-energy cutoff to lower and lower energies only increases the relative magnitude of the thermal component of the spectrum, because the lowest energy electrons simply join the background thermal distribution. Acceptable fits to RHESSI flare data are obtained using this model. These also demonstrate, however, that observed spectra may in consequence be acceptably consistent with rather a wide range of injected electron parameters., Comment: 12 pages, 5 Postscript figures. To be published in Astronomy & Astrophysics

Possible entropy constraints on particle acceleration spectra are discussed. Solar flare models invoke a variety of initial distributions of the primary energy release over the particles of the flare plasma -- ie., the partition of the energy between thermal and nonthermal components. It is suggested that, while this partition can take any value as far as energy is concerned, the entropy of a particle distribution may provide a useful measure of the likelihood of its being produced for a prescribed total energy. The Gibbs' entropy is calculated for several nonthermal isotropic distribution functions $f$, for a single particle species, and compared with that of a Maxwellian, all distributions having the same total number and energy of particles. Speculations are made on the relevance of some of the results to the cosmic ray power-law spectrum, on their relation to the observed frequency distribution of nonthermal flare hard X-ray spectrum parameters and on the additional energy release required to achieve lower entropy $f$s., Comment: LaTeX, 7 pages, 1 PostScript figure. To appear in A&A. See also http://info.astro.gla.ac.uk/preprints/