Acceleration of anomalous cosmic rays at the heliospheric termination shock

Astronomy Letters - The acceleration of anomalous cosmic rays (ACRs) at the heliospheric termination shock and their influence on the shock structure and location are analyzed in terms of a...     

Strong interplanetary field enhancements at Ulysses—evidence of dust trails' interaction with the solar wind?

Interplanetary field enhancements were first discovered in the vicinity of Venus. These events are characterised by an increase in the magnitude of the heliospheric magnetic field with a near-symmetrical, sometimes thorn-shaped profile, and last from minutes to hours. Surveys of the events near Venus and Earth indicated clustering of the events in inertial space, which suggested that their sources were Solar System objects other than the Sun. A survey is presented of strong events of this type detected by the Ulysses spacecraft from 1990 to late 2001. Most of the events are accompanied by a discontinuity in the field direction near the events' centres. Other discontinuities are often symmetrical about the enhancement. The majority of events last less than two hours. When examined as a whole, the events tend to be accompanied by subtle changes in some plasma parameters. The majority of the enhancements are accompanied by magnetic holes on their fringes. The enhancements' occurrence rate increases with decreasing heliocentric distance. Possible formation mechanisms are discussed. No link was found with solar, or solar wind sources. Several aspects of the survey results are consistent with an origin related to cometary dust trails. Possible processes associated with a dust-solar wind interaction are discussed.     

Geo-effectiveness of solar wind extremes

Examples of extreme events of solar wind and their effect on geomagnetic conditions are discussed here. It is found that there are two regimes of high speed solar wind streams with a threshold of ∼ 850 km s^-1. Geomagnetic activity enhancement rate (GAER) is defined as an average increase in Ap value per unit average increase in the peak solar wind velocity (Vp) during the stream. GAER was found to be different in the two regimes of high speed streams with +ve and-ve IMF. GAER is 0.73 and 0.53 for solar wind streams with +ve and -ve IMF respectively for the extremely high speed streams (< 850 km s^-1). This indicates that streams above the threshold speed with +ve IMF are 1.4 times more effective in enhancing geomagnetic activity than those with -ve IMF. However, the high speed streams below the threshold with -ve IMF are 1.1 times more effective in enhancing geomagnetic activity than those with +ve IMF. The violent solar activity period (October–November 2003) of cycle 23 presents a very special case during which many severe and strong effects were seen in the environment of the Earth and other planets; however, the z-component of IMF (Bz) is mostly positive during this period. The most severe geomagnetic storm of this cycle occurred when Bz was positive.     

Exchange and correlation interactions in electron-positron plasma

The effect of particle-particle interaction on the adiabatic index γ for an electron-positron plasma is considered. An improved method for numerically calculating the Hartree-Fock exchange integral is presented and its relativistic asymptotics is determined. An approximation formula is derived for the correlation part of the interaction in the low-density limit. This formula includes degeneracy and the positron component.     

Statistics of the individual-pulse polarization based on propagation effects in the pulsar magnetosphere

Pulsar radio emission is modelled as a sum of two completely polarized non-orthogonal modes with the randomly varying Stokes parameters and intensity ratio. The modes are the result of polarization evolution of the original natural waves in the hot, magnetized, weakly inhomogeneous plasma of the pulsar magnetosphere. In the course of the wavemode coupling, the linearly polarized natural waves acquire purely orthogonal elliptical polarizations. Further on, as the waves pass through the cyclotron resonance, they become non-orthogonal. The pulse-to-pulse fluctuations of the final polarization characteristics and the intensity ratio of the modes are attributed to the temporal fluctuations in the plasma flow.
The model suggested allows one to reproduce the basic features of the one-dimensional distributions of the individual-pulse polarization characteristics. Besides that, the propagation origin of the pulsar polarization implies a certain correlation between the mode ellipticity and position angle. On a qualitative level, for different sets of parameters, the expected correlations appear compatible with the observed ones. Further theoretical studies are necessary to establish the quantitative correspondence of the model to the observational results and to develop a technique of diagnostics of the pulsar plasma on this basis.     

Fast neutral particles as probes of the extent of Io's exosphere

The spatial extent of ion cyclotron waves at Io has been interpreted as requiring a multistep acceleration and transport process: exospheric ions are accelerated outward (relative to Jupiter) due to the corotation electric field, neutralized due to charge exchange in the surrounding exosphere, and then reionized after traveling far across magnetic field lines, at which point they generate the waves. The trajectories of the particles away from Io are sensitive to the location of their initial ionization. This paper examines the spatial distributions of fast neutrals produced under varying conditions in order to provide constraints on the possible structure and nature of the Io exosphere. While a rapid onset of cyclotron waves at a specific location around Io can be modeled with a single, point-source region of ions, such as might occur over a volcano, the regional extent of the waves suggests multiple or distributed sources.