Interaction of the solar wind with interstellar neutral hydrogen: Three‐fluid model

Abstract

It is commonly assumed in models of the solar wind‐interstellar neutral hydrogen interaction that the ionized interstellar particles are quickly assimilated into the solar wind proton population and “become indistinguishable” from the original solar wind. This assumption leads to the prediction that the solar wind proton temperature should increase with radius in the outer heliosphere. This temperature increase has not been observed. We point out that assimilation of the interstellar particles to the point of indistinguishability takes place on the very long Coulomb collision time scale and is not expected to occur within the heliosphere. We present results of a three‐fluid model of the solar wind which consists of comoving thermal populations of protons of solar origin, protons produced by ionization of interstellar hydrogen, and electrons. The steady‐state results yield a solar wind with a “core” proton distribution which cools adiabatically, and a “halo” of interstellar pickup protons which is maintained near 107 °K by the energy input of continued ionization and pickup. Such a distribution will not be observed to manifest the temperature increase at large heliocentric distances which is predicted from a one‐fluid analysis. Further time‐dependent calculations show a strong correlation between the densities of the solar wind and the interstellar pickup protons. We suggest that the interstellar pickup population may be observable by the Voyager plasma instruments in low resolution mode during periods of high solar wind density and low solar wind temperature.