Analysis of data from the Interstellar Boundary EXplorer (IBEX) has revealed the presence of a flow of neutral helium through the inner solar system that most likely emanates from the outer heliosheath, where a distinct population of neutral He is produced by charge exchange processes. This secondary He flow has been modeled using codes designed to study interstellar flows through the heliosphere, but a laminar flow is not a good approximation for the outer heliosheath. I present a simple parametrization for a more appropriate divergent flow, and demonstrate how the secondary He particles might provide a means to remotely measure the divergence of the ISM flow around the heliopause.
@article{arxiv.1706.04250,
title = {An Improved Parametrized Representation of the Secondary He Neutral Flow in its Source Region},
author = {Brian E. Wood},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1706.04250},
year = {2017}
}
Comments
To appear in the Proceedings of the 16th Annual Astrophysics Conference: Turbulence, Structures, and Particle Acceleration Throughout the Heliosphere and Beyond, IOP Conference Series