The solar wind proton ejection mechanism: Experiments with ultradense hydrogen agree with observed velocity distributions

Abstract

AbstractUltradense hydrogen H(0) is a very dense hydrogen cluster phase with H‐H distances in the picometer range. It has been studied experimentally in several publications from our group. A theoretical model exists which agrees well with laser‐pulse‐induced time‐of‐flight spectra and with rotational spectroscopy emission spectra. Coulomb explosions in H(0) in spin state s = 1 generate protons with kinetic energies larger than the retaining gravitational energy at the photosphere of the Sun. The required proton kinetic energy above 2 keV has been directly observed in published experiments. Such protons may be ejected from the Sun and are proposed to form the solar wind. The velocity distributions of the protons are calculated for three different ejecting modes from spin state s = 1. They agree well with both the fast and the slow solar winds. The best agreement is found for H(0) cluster sizes of 3 and 20–50 atoms; such clusters have been studied experimentally previously. The properties of ultradense hydrogen H(0) give also a few novel possibilities to explain the high corona temperature of the Sun.