The Heliosheath Plasma Flow Downstream of the Solar Wind Termination Shock in a Consistent Two-Fluid View

Abstract

In this article, we shall take it serious what has come out from recent theoretical studies on the plasma conditions in the heliosheath, namely downstream of the solar wind termination shock the total plasma pressure is dominated by the pressure of the electrons. We shall respect these results and try to develop the corresponding theoretical basis for an authentic multi-fluid description of the plasma flow downstream of the shock, starting with the dominant pressure action of the local electrons on the mass- and momentum flow of the multi-fluid plasma. It turns out that the usual claim made by Voyager-1 and-2 experimentalists that the bulk velocity of the upwind plasma flow is decreasing with distance from shock, would require that, in reaction to that bulkplasma momentum loss, the electron pressure even increases downstream of the shock. The alternative possibility would be that Voyager-1/-2 data up to now are misinterpreted, and that in fact solar wind bulk velocities in the upwind heliosheath downstream of the shock are increasing opposite to present understandings.