Solar flare hard X-ray spectra possibly inconsistent with the collisional thick target model

Recent progress in solar hard X-ray (HXR) observations with RHESSI data and methods for spectral inversion allow us to study model-independent mean electron flux spectra in solar flares. We report several hard X-ray events observed by RHESSI in which the photon spectra I(ϵ) are such that the inferred source mean electron spectra are not consistent with the standard model of collisional transport in solar flares. The observed photon spectra are so flat locally that the recovered mean electron flux spectra show a dip around 17–31 keV. While we note that alternative explanations, unrelated to electron transport, have not been ruled out, we focus on the physical implications of this tentative result for the collisional thick target model.