The Effects of Pickup Ions on Magnetic Reconnection at the Heliopause

Details The Effects of Pickup Ions on Magnetic Reconnection at the Heliopause The Effects of Pickup Ions on Magnetic Reconnection at the Heliopause

Dec 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008agufmsh21b1610s&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2008, abstract #SH21B-1610

Physics

2124 Heliopause And Solar Wind Termination, 2723 Magnetic Reconnection (7526, 7835), 7526 Magnetic Reconnection (2723, 7835), 7835 Magnetic Reconnection (2723, 7526)

Scientific paper

Recent observations by the Voyager 2 spacecraft after crossing the termination shock suggest that interstellar pickup ions account for most of the plasma energy downstream from the heliopause. This implies that the plasma beta (the ratio of the thermal to magnetic pressure) is significantly larger than unity and that strong gradients in the temperature exist at the heliopause. Previous work has shown that for similar conditions at the Earth's magnetopause the diamagnetic drift of X-lines stabilizes magnetic reconnection unless the reconnecting fields are nearly anti-parallel. We explore the heliospheric case with a combination of MHD simulations of the heliosphere and PIC simulations of the region near the X-line and make predictions for the Voyager crossings of the heliopause.

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