Bremsstrahlung of relativistic electrons accelerated in solar flares: The intensity and degree of polarization

The generation of bremsstrahlung by relativistic electrons accelerated in solar flares is considered. The electron distribution function is calculated numerically using the relativistic Fokker-Planck equation. The intensity and degree of polarization of hard X rays are calculated as functions of the energy, observation angle, and electron distributions in pitch angle and energy. The degree of polarization does not exceed 40% and depends most strongly on the observation angle and hardness of the electron energy spectra. The results of model computation are compared with data for solar flares observed July 23, 2002 and October 28, 2003.