TOWARD MORE REALISTIC ANALYTIC MODELS OF THE HELIOTAIL: INCORPORATING MAGNETIC FLATTENING VIA DISTORTION FLOWS
- Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Fakultät für Physik und Astronomie, Institut für Theoretische Physik IV, Bochum (Germany)
- Universität Regensburg, Fakultät für Mathematik, Regensburg (Germany)
- Department of Space Science and Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research, University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, AL 35899 (United States)
Both physical arguments and simulations of the global heliosphere indicate that the tailward heliopause is flattened considerably in the direction perpendicular to both the incoming flow and the large-scale interstellar magnetic field. Despite this fact, all of the existing global analytical models of the outer heliosheath's magnetic field assume a circular cross section of the heliotail. To eliminate this inconsistency, we introduce a mathematical procedure by which any analytically or numerically given magnetic field can be deformed in such a way that the cross sections along the heliotail axis attain freely prescribed, spatially dependent values for their total area and aspect ratio. The distorting transformation of this method honors both the solenoidality condition and the stationary induction equation with respect to an accompanying flow field, provided that both constraints were already satisfied for the original magnetic and flow fields prior to the transformation. In order to obtain realistic values for the above parameters, we present the first quantitative analysis of the heliotail's overall distortion as seen in state-of-the-art three-dimensional hybrid MHD–kinetic simulations.
- OSTI ID:
- 22521727
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 816, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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