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Title: Energy Distribution of Pickup Ions at the Solar Wind Termination Shock

Abstract

In-situ measurements taken by the Voyager 2 spacecraft suggest that the solar wind termination shock is significantly affected by the presence of pickup ions that are produced in the inner heliosphere due to charge exchange between interstellar neutrals and the solar wind ions. We use a fully kinetic particle-in-cell method to self-consistently simulate the shock with all physical properties available from Voyager 2. We have performed a set of simulations with varying velocity distribution functions for the pickup ions, since it was not determined by Voyager's measurements. We show that the measurements suggest that the pickup ions upstream of the shock are more energetic than generally believed. If their velocity distribution function assumes a filled-shell shape in the wind frame, the maximum cutoff speed for the pickup ions should be $≳$650 km s -1 in order to reproduce the measurements, which is almost twice the local wind speed. We suggest that pickup ions upstream of the shock are energized by adiabatic compression of the solar wind plasma as well as due to an enhanced level of turbulence in a broad foreshock region.

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [1]
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  1. Princeton Univ., NJ (United States). Dept. of Astrophysical Sciences
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
1544059
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
The Astrophysical Journal (Online)
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: The Astrophysical Journal (Online); Journal Volume: 860; Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 1538-4357
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; Astronomy & Astrophysics

Citation Formats

Kumar, Rahul, Zirnstein, Eric J., and Spitkovsky, Anatoly. Energy Distribution of Pickup Ions at the Solar Wind Termination Shock. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aabf96.
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Kumar, Rahul, Zirnstein, Eric J., & Spitkovsky, Anatoly. Energy Distribution of Pickup Ions at the Solar Wind Termination Shock. United States. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aabf96.
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Kumar, Rahul, Zirnstein, Eric J., and Spitkovsky, Anatoly. Wed . "Energy Distribution of Pickup Ions at the Solar Wind Termination Shock". United States. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aabf96. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1544059.
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@article{osti_1544059,
title = {Energy Distribution of Pickup Ions at the Solar Wind Termination Shock},
author = {Kumar, Rahul and Zirnstein, Eric J. and Spitkovsky, Anatoly},
abstractNote = {In-situ measurements taken by the Voyager 2 spacecraft suggest that the solar wind termination shock is significantly affected by the presence of pickup ions that are produced in the inner heliosphere due to charge exchange between interstellar neutrals and the solar wind ions. We use a fully kinetic particle-in-cell method to self-consistently simulate the shock with all physical properties available from Voyager 2. We have performed a set of simulations with varying velocity distribution functions for the pickup ions, since it was not determined by Voyager's measurements. We show that the measurements suggest that the pickup ions upstream of the shock are more energetic than generally believed. If their velocity distribution function assumes a filled-shell shape in the wind frame, the maximum cutoff speed for the pickup ions should be $≳$650 km s-1 in order to reproduce the measurements, which is almost twice the local wind speed. We suggest that pickup ions upstream of the shock are energized by adiabatic compression of the solar wind plasma as well as due to an enhanced level of turbulence in a broad foreshock region.},
doi = {10.3847/1538-4357/aabf96},
journal = {The Astrophysical Journal (Online)},
number = 2,
volume = 860,
place = {United States},
year = {2018},
month = {6}
}
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DOI:  10.3847/1538-4357/aabf96
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