Filtration of Interstellar Atoms through the Heliospheric Interface |
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Authors: | V V Izmodenov |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Mechanics and Mathematics, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia;(2) Space Research Institute (IKI), Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia;(3) Institute for Problems in Mechanics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia |
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Abstract: | Interstellar atoms penetrate deep into the heliosphere after passing through the heliospheric interface—the region of the
interaction of the solar wind with the interstellar medium. The heliospheric interface serves as a filter for the interstellar
atoms of hydrogen and oxygen, and, to a lesser extent, nitrogen, due to their coupling with interstellar and heliospheric
plasmas by charge exchange and electron impact ionization. The filtration has great importance for the determination of local
interstellar abundances of these elements, which becomes now possible due to measurements of interstellar pickup by Ulysses
and ACE, and anomalous cosmic rays by Voyagers, Ulysses, ACE, SAMPEX and Wind. The filtration of the different elements depends
on the level of their coupling with the plasma in the interaction region. The recent studies of the filtration of the interstellar
atoms in the heliospheric interface region is reviewed in this paper. The dependence of the filtration on the local interstellar
proton and H atom number densities is discussed and the roles of the charge exchange and electron impact ionization on the
filtration are evaluated. The influence of electron temperature in the inner heliosheath on the filtration process is discussed
as well. Using the filtration coefficients obtained from the modeling and SWICS/Ulysses pickup ion measurements, the local
interstellar abundances of the considered elements are determined. |
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Keywords: | ISM: atoms Interplanetary medium Solar wind Circumstellar matter |
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