Simulation of the heliosphere: Model

Abstract

The problem of the interaction of the solar wind with the very local interstellar medium (VLISM) is complicated by the role played by collisions between the plasma components of the heliosphere and VLISM and the neutral component of the VLISM. We outline the inherent approximations in fluid descriptions of the problem and give formulas for the near‐exact charge exchange and elastic collision transfer integrals for particles, momentum and energy for two drifting Maxwellians with different drift speeds and temperatures. To lowest order, all Boltzmann collision operators can be evaluated analytically in terms of exponentials and error functions. Analytic approximations that have relative errors of less than 2.62% compared with the exact expressions can be implemented in large simulation codes. Our formulation avoids approximations used previously by others and leads to a simplification of the formulation and increased accuracy for numerical simulations of the heliosphere/VLISM interaction.