On the Application of Differential Evolution to the Analysis of X-Ray Spectra*

Abstract

Abstract Using methods of differential evolution (DE), we determined the coronal elemental abundances and the differential emission measure (DEM) distributions for the plasma flaring on 2003 January 21. The analyses have been made based on RESIK X-ray spectra. DE belongs to the family of evolutionary algorithms. DE is conceptually simple and easy to implement, so it has been applied to solve many problems in science and engineering. In this study we apply this method in a new context: simultaneous determination of plasma composition and DEM. In order to increase the confidence of the results obtained using DE, we tested the use of its algorithms by comparing the DE synthesized with respective spectra observed by RESIK. Extensive discussion of the DE method used and the obtained physical characteristics of flaring plasma is presented.