Publication Date:
2015-09-23
Description:
We present a modeling study of interstellar pickup ion (PUI) distributions in co-rotating interaction regions (CIRs). We consider gradual compressions associated with CIRs formed when fast speed streams overtake slower streams in the inner heliosphere. For the analysis, we adopt a simplified magnetohydrodynamic model of a CIR [Giacalone et al., 2002]. The Energetic Particle Radiation Environment Module (EPREM) [Schwadron et al., 2010], a parallelized particle numerical kinetic code, is used to model PUI distributions using the focused transport equation, including adiabatic cooling/heating, adiabatic focusing, and parallel and perpendicular diffusion. The continuous injection of PUIs is handled as a source term with a ring distribution in velocity space that is produced from the local neutral density obtained from a hot model of the interstellar neutral gas. The simulated distributions exhibit a harder spectrum in the compression region and a softer spectrum in the rarefaction region than that in undisturbed solar wind. As an additional result, a v −5 power-law tail distribution above the PUI cut-off speed (a knee in the distribution) emerges for a particular velocity gradient in the CIR. The tail above the PUI cut-off is sensitive to the CIR velocity gradient, and in one observational case studied, this relationship adequately explains the observed spectrum from 2 to 4 times the solar wind speed. This suggests that the velocity gradient associated with the CIR formation can efficiently create a seed population of PUIs before a shock forms even without stochastic acceleration. Thus, local CIR compressions without shocks may play a significant role in the acceleration process as suggested previously [e.g., Chotoo et al., 2001; Giacalone et al., 2002; Ebert et al., 2012].
Print ISSN:
0148-0227
Topics:
Geosciences
,
Physics
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