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Title: Stochastic Acceleration of ~0.1–5 keV Pickup Ions in the Heliotail

Journal Article · · The Astrophysical Journal (Online)

We seek to understand the quantitative role of the dominant physical processes (charge-exchange, adiabatic heating, stochastic acceleration) governing the proton distribution in the heliotail using observations of hydrogen energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) from the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX ). We solve the Parker transport equation for solar wind protons and pickup ions (PUIs) as they propagate from the termination shock (TS) down the heliotail, including charge-exchange between protons and neutral hydrogen atoms as source terms derived from an MHD-fluid and kinetic-neutral simulation of the heliosphere. We compute ENA fluxes at 1 au from the results of the proton transport model and compare them with IBEX observations. We find that, under the assumptions of our model, a stochastic acceleration process is needed to counteract the energy-dependent losses of ~0.1–5 keV PUIs from charge-exchange to reproduce IBEX data. The power-law velocity dependence of the diffusion coefficient (spectral index γ) is limited to the range 0.67 < γ < 2, and the best fit to IBEX data appears close to γ ~ 1.25. The diffusion rate ~1.1 × 10-8 km2 s-3 (v/v 0)1.25 nearly balances the loss of ~0.1–5 keV PUIs by charge-exchange. Our analysis suggests that cyclotron resonance with two widely known incompressible MHD turbulence: namely, isotropic Kolmogorov and anisotropic Goldreich–Sridhar turbulence, as well as stochastic particle interactions with compressive waves are not by themselves the dominant diffusion mechanisms. However, some intermediate processes may be occurring due to the presence of PUIs.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
OSTI ID:
1544062
Journal Information:
The Astrophysical Journal (Online), Vol. 860, Issue 2; ISSN 1538-4357
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 19 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (12)

Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP): A New NASA Mission journal October 2018
Constraining the Evolution of the Proton Distribution Function in the Heliotail journal October 2018
Energetic Neutral Atoms from the Heliosheath as an Additional Population of Neutral Hydrogen in the Inner Heliosphere journal January 2019
Model-free Maps of Interstellar Neutral Hydrogen Measured with IBEX between 2009 and 2018 journal January 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
An Empirical Model of Energetic Neutral Atom Imaging of the Heliosphere and Its Implications for Future Heliospheric Missions at Great Heliocentric Distances journal November 2019
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
Energetic Neutral Atoms from the Heliosheath as an Additional Population of Neutral Hydrogen in the Inner Heliosphere text January 2019
An Empirical Model of Energetic Neutral Atom Imaging of the Heliosphere and Its Implications for Future Heliospheric Missions at Great Heliocentric Distances text January 2019
Constraining the Evolution of the Proton Distribution Function in the Heliotail text January 2018
Energetic neutral atoms from the heliosheath as an additional population of neutral hydrogen in the inner heliosphere text January 2018