The Sun at GeV--TeV Energies: A New Laboratory for Astroparticle Physics

Abstract: The Sun is an excellent laboratory for astroparticle physics but remains poorly understood at GeV--TeV energies. Despite the immense relevance for both cosmic-ray propagation and dark matter searches, only in recent years has the Sun become a target for precision gamma-ray astronomy with the Fermi-LAT instrument. Among the most surprising results from the observations is a hard excess of GeV gamma-ray flux that strongly anti-correlates with solar activity, especially at the highest energies accessible to Fermi-LAT. Most of the observed properties of the gamma-ray emission cannot be explained by existing models of cosmic-ray interactions with the solar atmosphere. GeV--TeV gamma-ray observations of the Sun spanning an entire solar cycle would provide key insights into the origin of these gamma rays, and consequently improve our understanding of the Sun's environment as well as the foregrounds for new physics searches, such as dark matter. These can be complemented with new observations with neutrinos and cosmic rays. Together these observations make the Sun a new testing ground for particle physics in dynamic environments.