Relativistic runaway electron avalanches: unified density-dependent scaling and transport
- 1A. Alikhanyan National Laboratory (Yerevan, Armenia)
Abstract
Relativistic runaway electron avalanches (RREAs) are commonly characterized by an empirical relation linking the avalanche length to the electric-field excess above the runaway threshold. In this study, CORSIKA simulations are used to examine the behavior of this parameterization under different atmospheric densities and electric-field conditions and to investigate the subsequent propagation of particles beyond the accelerating field region. Simulations are performed for four high-altitude observational sites. The effective avalanche lengths derived from the vertical electron profiles exhibit inter-station scatter when fitted with a single coefficient across the combined dataset. Incorporating an additional density-dependent term reduces this scatter and improves the fit, increasing the coefficient of determination from R ² ≈0.90 to R ² ≈0.99. Simulations of particle propagation beyond the electric-field region show different attenuation behavior for the electron and gamma-ray components. Reassessment of the empirical free path distance (FPD) formulation for a 100 m field-to-detector separation yields an electron–gamma energy coefficient of C ₁ ≈1.37, while the density dependence of electron energy losses is accounted for using stopping-power data from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) ESTAR (Stopping Powers and Range Tables for Electrons) database.
Versions
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BibTeX
@article{hovhannisyan2026relativistic,
title = {{Relativistic runaway electron avalanches: unified density-dependent scaling and transport}},
author = {Liza Hovhannisyan},
journal = {Geoscientific Model Development},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.5194/gmd-19-9289-2026},
url = {https://gmd.copernicus.org/articles/19/9289/2026/},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Relativistic runaway electron avalanches: unified density-dependent scaling and transport
AU - Liza Hovhannisyan
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/01
JO - Geoscientific Model Development
DO - 10.5194/gmd-19-9289-2026
UR - https://gmd.copernicus.org/articles/19/9289/2026/
AB - Relativistic runaway electron avalanches (RREAs) are commonly characterized by an empirical relation linking the avalanche length to the electric-field excess above the runaway threshold. In this study, CORSIKA simulations are used to examine the behavior of this parameterization under different atmospheric densities and electric-field conditions and to investigate the subsequent propagation of particles beyond the accelerating field region. Simulations are performed for four high-altitude observational sites. The effective avalanche lengths derived from the vertical electron profiles exhibit inter-station scatter when fitted with a single coefficient across the combined dataset. Incorporating an additional density-dependent term reduces this scatter and improves the fit, increasing the coefficient of determination from R ² ≈0.90 to R ² ≈0.99. Simulations of particle propagation beyond the electric-field region show different attenuation behavior for the electron and gamma-ray components. Reassessment of the empirical free path distance (FPD) formulation for a 100 m field-to-detector separation yields an electron–gamma energy coefficient of C ₁ ≈1.37, while the density dependence of electron energy losses is accounted for using stopping-power data from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) ESTAR (Stopping Powers and Range Tables for Electrons) database.
SN - 1991-9603
ER -