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Title: Charge-exchange coupling between pickup ions across the heliopause and its effect on energetic neutral hydrogen flux

Journal Article · · The Astrophysical Journal
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [2]
  1. Univ. of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, AL (United States)
  2. Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX (United States); Univ. of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX (United States)
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Pickup ions (PUIs) appear to play an integral role in the multi-component nature of the plasma in the interaction between the solar wind (SW) and local interstellar medium (LISM). Three-dimensional (3D) MHD simulations with a kinetic treatment for neutrals and PUIs are currently still not viable. In light of recent energetic neutral atom (ENA) observations by the Interstellar Boundary EXplorer, the purpose of this paper is to illustrate the complex coupling between PUIs across the heliopause (HP) as facilitated by ENAs using estimates of PUI properties extracted from a 3D MHD simulation of the SW-LISM interaction with kinetic neutrals. First, we improve upon the multi-component treatment of the inner heliosheath (IHS) plasma from Zank et al. by including the extinction of PUIs through charge-exchange. We find a significant amount of energy is transferred away from hot, termination shock-processed PUIs into a colder, "freshly injected" PUI population. Second, we extend the multi-component approach to estimate ENA flux from the outer heliosheath (OHS), formed from charge-exchange between interstellar hydrogen atoms and energetic PUIs. These PUIs are formed from ENAs in the IHS that crossed the HP and experienced charge-exchange. Lastly, our estimates, based on plasma-neutral simulations of the SW-LISM interaction and a post-processing analysis of ENAs and PUIs, suggest the majority of flux visible at 1 AU from the front of the heliosphere, between ~0.02 and 10 keV, originates from OHS PUIs, indicating strong coupling between the IHS and OHS plasmas through charge-exchange.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Alabama, Huntsville, AL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0008334
OSTI ID:
1326050
Journal Information:
The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 783, Issue 2; ISSN 0004-637X
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 53 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (14)

Heliosheath Processes and the Structure of the Heliopause: Modeling Energetic Particles, Cosmic Rays, and Magnetic Fields journal April 2017
Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP): A New NASA Mission journal October 2018
Three-Dimensional Kinetic-Mhd Model of the Global Heliosphere with the Heliopause-Surface Fitting journal October 2015
Charge-exchange source terms in magnetohydrodynamic plasmas journal May 2017
Constraining the Evolution of the Proton Distribution Function in the Heliotail journal October 2018
Globally Distributed Energetic Neutral Atom Maps for the “Croissant” Heliosphere journal September 2018
The Effect of Suprathermal Protons in the Heliosheath on the Global Structure of the Heliosphere and Heliotail journal March 2019
Temporal Evolution of the Latitude and Energy Dependence of the Energetic Neutral Atom Spectral Indices Measured by the Interstellar Boundary Explorer ( IBEX ) Over the First Nine Years journal April 2019
Strong Scattering of ∼keV Pickup Ions in the Local Interstellar Magnetic Field Draped around Our Heliosphere: Implications for the IBEX Ribbon's Source and IMAP journal May 2019
The Structure of Shocks in the Very Local Interstellar Medium journal February 2018
Inner Heliosheath Shocks and Their Effect on Energetic Neutral Atom Observations by IBEX journal June 2019
Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP): A New NASA Mission text January 2018
Heliosheath Processes and the Structure of the Heliopause: Modeling Energetic Particles, Cosmic Rays, and Magnetic Fields text January 2017
Constraining the Evolution of the Proton Distribution Function in the Heliotail text January 2018

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Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ISM: atoms
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methods: numerical
solar wind
Sun: heliosphere