On the anticorrelation between the He-3/He-4 ratio and proton intensity in He-3 rich flares

A model is presented which can explain the observed anticorrelation between the size of the 3He/4He abundance ratio at greater than or approximately 10 MeV/nuc and the peak intensity of approximately 10 MeV protons in 3He rich events. If 3He is preaccelerated with respect to 4He prior to the main ion acceleration phase, and if the main ion acceleration phase has an effective injection cutoff which varies from flare to flare, the observed anticorrelation follows naturally.