The Pickup Ion-Mediated Solar Wind
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The Astrophysical Journal, 869:23 (21pp), 2018 December 10 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aaebfe © 2018. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. The Pickup Ion-mediated Solar Wind G. P. Zank1,2 , L. Adhikari1 , L.-L. Zhao1 , P. Mostafavi2,3 , E. J. Zirnstein3 , and D. J. McComas3 1 Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research (CSPAR), University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, AL 35805, USA 2 Department of Space Science, University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, AL 35899, USA 3 Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA Received 2018 September 10; revised 2018 October 22; accepted 2018 October 24; published 2018 December 7 Abstract The New Horizons Solar Wind Around Pluto (NH SWAP) instrument has provided the first direct observations of interstellar H+ and He+ pickup ions (PUIs) at distances between ∼11.26 and 38 au in the solar wind. The observations demonstrate that the distant solar wind beyond the hydrogen ionization cavity is indeed mediated by PUIs. The creation of PUIs modifies the underlying low-frequency turbulence field responsible for their own scattering. The dissipation of these low-frequency fluctuations serves to heat the solar wind plasma, and accounts for the observed non-adiabatic solar wind temperature profile and a possible slow temperature increase beyond ∼30 au. We develop a very general theoretical model that incorporates PUIs, solar wind thermal plasma, the interplanetary magnetic field, and low-frequency turbulence to describe the evolution of the large-scale solar wind, PUIs, and turbulence from 1–84 au, the structure of the perpendicular heliospheric termination shock, and the transmission of turbulence into the inner heliosheath, extending the classical models of Holzer and Isenberg. A detailed comparison of the theoretical model solutions and observations derived from the Voyager 2 and NH SWAP data sets shows excellent agreement between the two for reasonable physical parameters. Key words: ISM: atoms – local interstellar matter – solar wind – Sun: heliosphere 1. Introduction Zank et al. 2017). Equally importantly, the dissipation of these low-frequency fluctuations serves to heat the solar wind The New Horizons Solar Wind Around Pluto (NH SWAP) plasma, and accounts for the non-adiabatic solar wind instrument (McComas et al. 2008) measures the thermal solar fi temperature profile and a possible slow temperature increase wind plasma and additionally has provided the rst direct ∼ ( observations of interstellar H+ and He+ pickup ions (PUIs) at beyond 30 au Williams et al. 1995; Matthaeus et al. 1999; ∼ Smith et al. 2001; Breech et al. 2008; Oughton et al. 2011; distances between 11.26 and 38 au in the solar wind ) (McComas et al. 2017). This region is well distant of the Adhikari et al. 2015; Zank et al. 2017 . The excitation of low- ( frequency turbulence in the outer heliosphere also has an effect hydrogen ionization cavity contained roughly within ( ∼5–8au), and so the observed PUI distribution, particularly on cosmic ray mfps Zank et al. 1998; Florinski et al. 2003; H+ fi Engelbrecht & Burger 2013; Chhiber et al. 2017; Engelbrecht that of pickup , should have had suf cient time to evolve ) into a stable nearly isotropic distribution. Prior observations of 2017; Zhao et al. 2017, 2018 . PUIs by the Ulysses Solar Wind Ion Composition Spectrometer Evidently, there is a close coupling of PUIs, thermal solar instrument (Gloeckler et al. 1992) identified numerous PUI wind plasma, and the evolution of low-frequency turbulence species (H+,He+, N+, O+,Ne+)(e.g., Gloeckler & Geiss throughout the solar wind. Early solar wind models that include fl 1998). These observations were made within the hydrogen PUIs created by the ow of interstellar neutral H into the ionization cavity, from about 1.4–5.4 au, and the distributions heliosphere typically assumed instantaneous assimilation and tended to be highly anisotropic in character (Gloeckler et al. equilibration of newly created PUIs with the solar wind plasma ( 1995). This suggested that the PUI scattering mean free path Wallis 1971; Holzer 1972; Holzer & Leer 1973; Isenberg et al. (mfp) was possibly unusually long, the precise reason being 1985) i.e., the combined thermal solar wind and PUI plasma somewhat unclear. It has been suggested that the nature of the was treated as a single distribution, and the closure of the fluid underlying turbulence responsible for the scattering of PUIs, system assumed essentially a total Maxwellian distribution. being a superposition of a majority quasi-2D and a minority These models predicted a quite dramatic solar wind temper- slab component, might be responsible for the long mfps. ature increase with increasing heliocentric distance, which is of However, the initial PUI distribution, as a ring-beam, is course not observed. Isenberg (1986) pointed out that the unstable to the excitation of Alfvénic modes (Lee & Ip 1987; Coulomb collision timescale between suprathermal pickup Williams & Zank 1994; Zank 1999; Cannon et al. 2014a, protons and solar wind protons (and electrons) far exceeds the 2014b; Aggarwal et al. 2016; Fisher et al. 2016; Smith et al. fluid advection time for a heliospheric supersonic flow of radial 2017; Hollick et al. 2018a, 2018b), and therefore modifies the extent less than 100 au (i.e., the distance to the heliospheric underlying low-frequency turbulence field responsible for termination shock—HTS). Consequently, there can be no scattering PUIs. It transpires that the excitation of Alfvénic equilibration of the thermal solar wind and pickup proton fluctuations in the distant solar wind is key to understanding the populations, and instead the total distribution will comprise a observed radial evolution of the variance in magnetic field cold thermal solar wind core and a tenuous energetic pickup fluctuations (Zank et al. 1996; Matthaeus et al. 1999; Smith proton halo (Isenberg 1986; Zank et al. 1996; Zank 1999; Zank et al. 2001; Breech et al. 2008; Isenberg et al. 2010; Oughton et al. 2014, 2010; Zank 2015; Burrows et al. 2010).As et al. 2011; Zank et al. 2012a; Adhikari et al. 2014, 2015; discussed by Isenberg (1986) and further elaborated by Zank Wiengarten et al. 2016; Adhikari et al. 2017; Shiota et al. 2017; et al. (2014 ; see also Zank 2016), a model of the supersonic 1 The Astrophysical Journal, 869:23 (21pp), 2018 December 10 Zank et al. solar wind must incorporate as distinct plasma components the scale lengths introduced by both PUI heat conduction and thermal solar wind and the suprathermal pickup protons. viscosity in our model of the large-scale supersonic solar wind, In this work, we extend the classical models of Holzer they are of importance in determining the structure of the HTS, (1972) and Isenberg (1986) by coupling a detailed model of as will be discussed in Section 4. turbulence transport and dissipation to a multi-fluid description In the low-frequency or magnetohydrodynamic (MHD)-like of the solar wind plasma. This allows us to properly examine reduction of the full multi-fluid thermal plasma (thermal the feedback between solar wind plasma heating, the modified protons and electrons) and pickup proton gas, the tenuous large-scale solar wind velocity due to the creation of PUIs, and pickup protons co-move with the dominant (by number) the driving of turbulence by solar wind and interstellar PUI thermal plasma constituent (Zank et al. 2014). This yields after sources. suitable approximation the MHD-like Equations (61)–(68) in An important motivation for this work is that it allows for the Zank et al. (2014), in which both a distinct scalar thermal testing of pickup proton-mediated solar wind models within pressure Ps and pickup proton pressure Pp are present. These ∼40 au against a suite of NH SWAP plasma observations, equations need to be modified by the effects of interstellar including pickup proton plasma parameters. It also allows for proton pickup due to photoionization of interstellar neutral H the extrapolation of solar wind and thermal solar wind plasma and both thermal proton and pickup proton charge exchange parameters to the HTS based on SWAP observations between with interstellar neutral H traversing the heliosphere. The ∼11.26 and 38 au (Randol et al. 2012, 2013; McComas et al. underlying basis of the derivation of the continuum model and 2017). By extrapolating the SWAP plasma parameters to source terms from a kinetic perspective is discussed in the ∼ – ( ( ) ( ) 75 84 au, we can test models of the HTS McComas et al. Appendix. The thermal plasma rs and pickup proton rp 2017) of the kind developed by Mostafavi et al. (2017b). density equations may be expressed separately as Unfortunately NH does not possess a magnetic field instru- ¶rs s ment, which limits our ability to fully evaluate the turbulence +·(rsU ) =-Sc ;1() transport models. ¶t In Section 2, we present the basic model, including the ¶r p s ph turbulence transport equations, illustrating the complex mutual +·(rpU ) =SSc + p ,2 ( ) ¶t coupling of pickup protons, turbulence, and solar wind thermal s ph plasma. Solutions for the supersonic solar wind models are where Sc denotes a charge-exchange source term and Sp a presented in Section 3, and we compare to observations derived photoionization source term, the specific forms of which are from Voyager 2 plasma and magnetometer data and NH SWAP presented below, and U is the co-moving bulk flow velocity. plasma data. Section 3 includes extrapolation of the plasma and Equations (1) and (2) can of course be combined in terms of the fi ∼ magnetic eld model to 84 au. This set of values is used in total density r º+rr, i.e., Section 4 to model the structure of the HTS based on a s p ¶r corresponding PUI-mediated plasma model. Finally, in +·(rU ) =S ph.3() Section 5, we use the turbulence model and the derived HTS ¶t p shock structure results to consider the transmission of The conservation form of the total momentum equation can be turbulence through the HTS into the inner heliosheath.