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Title: The Heliotail: Theory and Modeling

Journal Article · · Journal of Physics. Conference Series
 [1]
  1. Univ. of Alabama, Huntsville, AL (United States). Dept. of Space Science

Physical processes are discussed related to the heliotail which is formed when the solar wind interacts with the local interstellar medium. Although astrotails are commonly observed, the heliotail observations are only indirect. As a consequence, the direct comparison of the observed astrophysical objects and the Sun is impossible. This requires proper theoretical understanding of the heliotail formation and evolution, and numerical simulations in sufficiently large computational boxes. In this paper, we review some previous results related to the heliotail flow and show new simulations which demonstrate that the solar wind collimation inside the Parker spiral field lines diverted by the heliopause toward the heliotail is unrealistic. On the contrary, solar cycle effects ensure that the solar wind density reaches its largest values near the solar equatorial plane. We also argue that a realistic heliotail should be very long to account for the observed anisotropy of 1-10 TeV cosmic rays.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Alabama, Huntsville, AL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0008334; NNX14AJ53G; NNX14AF41G; NNX14AF43G; NNX15AN72G; NNX16AG83G; OCI-1144120; SMD-15-5860
OSTI ID:
1326082
Journal Information:
Journal of Physics. Conference Series, Vol. 719; ISSN 1742-6588
Publisher:
IOP PublishingCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Heliosheath Processes and the Structure of the Heliopause: Modeling Energetic Particles, Cosmic Rays, and Magnetic Fields journal April 2017
Modeling Coronal Mass Ejections with the Multi-Scale Fluid-Kinetic Simulation Suite journal May 2017
All-Sky Measurement of the Anisotropy of Cosmic Rays at 10 TeV and Mapping of the Local Interstellar Magnetic Field text January 2018
Simulation of the Solar Wind Dynamic Pressure Increase in 2014 and Its Effect on Energetic Neutral Atom Fluxes from the Heliosphere journal May 2018
All-sky Measurement of the Anisotropy of Cosmic Rays at 10 TeV and Mapping of the Local Interstellar Magnetic Field journal January 2019
All-Sky Measurement of the Anisotropy of Cosmic Rays at 10 TeV and Mapping of the Local Interstellar Magnetic Field text January 2019
Heliosheath Processes and the Structure of the Heliopause: Modeling Energetic Particles, Cosmic Rays, and Magnetic Fields text January 2017