Interstellar Plasma Research Articles

Compact radio sources and interstellar scattering near the galactic center

Using literature data on approximately 400 compact radio sources detected with the Very Large Array and located in the direction of the Galactic center within 2° of the compact source Sgr A*, 69 sources whose angular sizes are determined by scattering on electron density inhomogeneities were distinguished. Fifty-five of these are extragalactic, two are supercompact HII regions, ten are sources of maser emission, and two are variable Galactic sources. The excess of the apparent angular sizes of maser sources within 2° of the Galactic center above the mean size of objects of this class in other parts of the Galaxy found in many studies cannot be explained purely by the effect of scattering of their radio emission on interstellar plasma inhomogeneities. The angular sizes of these objects are increased due to scattering only within Galactic longitudes of about 0.4° and Galactic latitudes less than 0.1°. The turbulent medium responsible for scattering of radio emission of compact sources in the immediate vicinity of the Galactic center is strongly concentrated toward the compact source Sgr A* at the Galactic center. No extragalactic sources are observed within 0.4° in longitude and 0.2° in latitude of the Galactic center, because of their low brightness due to the superstrong scattering in this region. Data on scatter broadening can be used to study the distribution of turbulent plasma near the Galactic center.

WHY ARE THE MAGNETIC FIELD DIRECTIONS MEASURED BY VOYAGER 1 ON BOTH SIDES OF THE HELIOPAUSE SO SIMILAR?

The solar wind carves in the interstellar plasma a cavity bounded by a surface, called the heliopause (HP), that separates the plasma and magnetic field of solar origin from the interstellar ones. It is now generally accepted that in August 2012 Voyager 1 (V1) crossed that boundary. Unexpectedly, the magnetic fields on both its sides, although theoretically independent of each other, were found to be similar in direction. This delayed the identification of the boundary as the heliopause and led to many alternative explanations. Here we show that the Voyager 1 observations can be readily explained and, after the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) discovery of the ribbon, could even have been predicted. Our explanation relies on the fact that the Voyager 1 and the undisturbed interstellar field directions (which we assume to be given by the IBEX ribbon center (RC)) share the same heliolatitude (~34.5 degrees) and are not far separated in longitude (difference ~27 degrees). Our result confirms that Voyager 1 has indeed crossed the heliopause and offers the first independent confirmation that the IBEX ribbon center is in fact the direction of the undisturbed interstellar magnetic field. For Voyager 2 we predict that the difference between the inner and the outer magnetic field directions at the heliopause will be significantly larger than the one observed by Voyager 1 (~30 degrees, instead of ~20 degrees), and that the outer field direction will be close to the RC.

The many sides of RCW 86: a Type Ia supernova remnant evolving in its progenitor's wind bubble

We present the results of a detailed investigation of the Galactic supernova remnant RCW 86 using the XMM-Newton X-ray telescope. RCW 86 is the probable remnant of SN 185 A.D, a supernova that likely exploded inside a wind-blown cavity. We use the XMM-Newton Reflection Grating Spectrometer (RGS) to derive precise temperatures and ionization ages of the plasma, which are an indication of the interaction history of the remnant with the presumed cavity. We find that the spectra are well fitted by two non-equilibrium ionization models, which enables us to constrain the properties of the ejecta and interstellar matter plasma. Furthermore, we performed a principal component analysis on EPIC MOS and pn data to find regions with particular spectral properties. We present evidence that the shocked ejecta, emitting Fe-K and Si line emission, are confined to a shell of approximately 2 pc width with an oblate spheroidal morphology. Using detailed hydrodynamical simulations, we show that general dynamical and emission properties at different portions of the remnant can be well-reproduced by a type Ia supernova that exploded in a non-spherically symmetric wind-blown cavity. We also show that this cavity can be created using general wind properties for a single degenerate system. Our data and simulations provide further evidence that RCW 86 is indeed the remnant of SN 185, and is the likely result of a type Ia explosion of single degenerate origin.

COSMIC RAY TRANSPORT IN HELIOSPHERIC MAGNETIC STRUCTURES. I. MODELING BACKGROUND SOLAR WIND USING THE CRONOS MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMIC CODE

The transport of energetic particles such as Cosmic Rays is governed by the properties of the plasma being traversed. While these properties are rather poorly known for galactic and interstellar plasmas due to the lack of in situ measurements, the heliospheric plasma environment has been probed by spacecraft for decades and provides a unique opportunity for testing transport theories. Of particular interest for the 3D heliospheric transport of energetic particles are structures such as corotating interaction regions (CIRs), which, due to strongly enhanced magnetic field strengths, turbulence, and associated shocks, can act as diffusion barriers on the one hand, but also as accelerators of low energy CRs on the other hand as well. In a two-fold series of papers we investigate these effects by modeling inner-heliospheric solar wind conditions with a numerical magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) setup (this paper), which will serve as an input to a transport code employing a stochastic differential equation (SDE) approach (second paper). In this first paper we present results from 3D MHD simulations with our code CRONOS: for validation purposes we use analytic boundary conditions and compare with similar work by Pizzo. For a more realistic modeling of solar wind conditions, boundary conditions derived from synoptic magnetograms via the Wang-Sheeley-Arge (WSA) model are utilized, where the potential field modeling is performed with a finite-difference approach (FDIPS) in contrast to the traditional spherical harmonics expansion often utilized in the WSA model. Our results are validated by comparing with multi-spacecraft data for ecliptical (STEREO-A/B) and out-of-ecliptic (Ulysses) regions.

Positron-acoustic Gardner solitons and double layers in electron-positron-ion plasmas with nonthermal electrons and positrons

A theoretical investigation has been made on positron-acoustic (PA) Gardner solitons (GSs) and double layers (DLs) in four-component plasma system consisting of immobile positive ions, mobile cold positrons, nonthermal hot positrons, and nonthermal hot electrons. The reductive perturbation method has been used to derive Korteweg-de Vries (K-dV), modified K-dV (mK-dV), and Gardner equations. The basic features (viz. amplitude, polarity, speed, etc.) of the PA GSs as well as PA DLs are examined. The analytical comparison among K-dV solitons, mK-dV solitons, and GSs are also made. It has been identified that the amplitude, polarity, speed, thickness of such PA solitons and DLs are significantly modified due to the presence of nonthermal distributed hot electrons and hot positrons. The results of our investigation should be useful for understanding various interstellar space plasma environments (viz. ionosphere, lower part of magnetosphere, auroral acceleration regions, supernovas, pulsar environments, cluster explosions, active galactic nuclei, etc.).

Cylindrical and spherical positron-acoustic Gardner solitons in electron-positron-ion plasmas with nonthermal electrons and positrons

A theoretical investigation has been performed on the nonlinear propagation of nonplanar (cylindrical and spherical) Gardner solitons (GSs) associated with the positron-acoustic (PA) waves in a four component plasma system consisting of nonthermal distributed electrons and hot positrons, mobile cold positrons, and immobile positive ions. The well-known reductive perturbation method has been employed to derive the modified Gardner (MG) equation. The basic features (viz. amplitude, polarity, speed, etc.) of nonplanar PA Gardner solitons (GSs) have been examined by the numerical analysis of the MG equation. It has been observed that the properties of the PA GSs in a nonplanar geometry differ from those in a planar geometry. It has been also investigated that the presence of nonthermal (Cairns distributed) electrons and hot positrons significantly modify the amplitude, polarity, speed, and thickness of such PA GSs. The results of our investigation should play an important role in understanding various interstellar space plasma environments as well as laboratory plasmas.

High-frequency gravitational waves having large spectral densities and their electromagnetic response

Various cosmology models, brane oscillation scenarios, interaction of interstellar plasma with intense electromagnetic radiation, and even high-energy physics experiments (e.g., Large Hadron Collider (LHC)) all predict high frequency gravitational waves (HFGWs, i.e., high-energy gravitons) in the microwave band and higher frequency region, and some of them have large energy densities. Electromagnetic (EM) detection to such HFGWs would be suitable due to very high frequencies and large energy densities of the HFGWs. We review several typical EM detection schemes, i.e., inverse Gertsenshtein effect (G-effect), coupling of the inverse G effect with a coherent EM wave, coupling of planar superconducting open cavity with a static magnetic field, cylindrical superconducting closed cavity, and the EM sychro-resonance system, and discuss related minimal detectable amplitudes and sensitivities. Furthermore, we give some new ideas and improvement ways enhancing the possibility of measuring the HFGWs. It is shown that there is still a large room for improvement for those schemes to approach and even reach up the requirement of detection of HFGWs expected by the cosmological models and high-energy astrophysical process.

Limits to PTA sensitivity: spin stability and arrival time precision of millisecond pulsars

Sources of noise in pulsar timing measurements are discussed along with spin stability of neutron stars. Estimates and scaling laws are given for spin noise, timing errors from fluctuations in pulsar magnetospheres, dispersion and scattering in the interstellar plasma, and in the matched filtering technique used to estimate arrival times. The composite noise spectrum is presented and an assessment of the detectability of gravitational waves (GWs) is given in terms of the sources of error and their mitigation. The scaling laws indicate that substantial improvement in sensitivity to GWs can be expected from implementation of new, wideband spectrometers at radio observatories, by using new algorithms to further reduce the levels of plasma propagation effects, and by increasing the number of millisecond pulsars used in pulsar timing arrays.

The structure of the Heliopause

Voyager 1 has explored the solar wind-interstellar medium interaction region between the Terminal Shock and the Heliopause, following the intensity distribution of the shock accelerated anomalous component of cosmic rays in the MeV energy range. The sudden disappearance of this component at 121.7 AU from the sun is discussed in terms of three models for the transition into the interstellar plasma flow. Particles trapped flowing parallel to the boundary may penetrate up to one Larmour radius beyond. If the boundary is stationary, Voyager 1 directly samples this distance. The boundary could flap, depending on Heliosheath pressure changes and Voyager 1 then samples the extent of this motion. Finally, a turbulent boundary layer is considered in which the MeV particle distribution falls off with distance, thus measuring diffusion within the layer.

The origin of the Galactic center diffuse X-ray emission investigated by near-infrared imaging and polarimetric observations

AbstractThe origin of the Galactic center diffuse X-ray emission (GCDX) is still under intense investigation. We have found a clear excess in a longitudinal GCDX profile over a stellar number density profile in the nuclear bulge region, suggesting a significant contribution of diffuse, interstellar hot plasma to the GCDX. We have estimated that contributions of an old stellar population to the GCDX are ∼50% and ∼20% in the nuclear stellar disk and nuclear star cluster, respectively. Our near-infrared polarimetric observations show that the GCDX region is permeated by a large scale, toroidal magnetic field. Together with observed magnetic field strengths in nearly energy equipartition, the interstellar hot plasma could be confined by the toroidal magnetic field.

In Situ Observations of Interstellar Plasma with Voyager 1

Launched over 35 years ago, Voyagers 1 and 2 are on an epic journey outward from the Sun to reach the boundary between the solar plasma and the much cooler interstellar medium. The boundary, called the heliopause, is expected to be marked by a large increase in plasma density, from about 0.002 per cubic centimeter (cm(-3)) in the outer heliosphere, to about 0.1 cm(-3) in the interstellar medium. On 9 April 2013, the Voyager 1 plasma wave instrument began detecting locally generated electron plasma oscillations at a frequency of about 2.6 kilohertz. This oscillation frequency corresponds to an electron density of about 0.08 cm(-3), very close to the value expected in the interstellar medium. These and other observations provide strong evidence that Voyager 1 has crossed the heliopause into the nearby interstellar plasma.

Search for the Exit: Voyager 1 at Heliosphere’s Border with the Galaxy

We report measurements of energetic (>40 kiloelectron volts) charged particles on Voyager 1 from the interface region between the heliosheath, dominated by heated solar plasma, and the local interstellar medium, which is expected to contain cold nonsolar plasma and the galactic magnetic field. Particles of solar origin at Voyager 1, located at 18.5 billion kilometers (123 astronomical units) from the Sun, decreased by a factor of >10(3) on 25 August 2012, while those of galactic origin (cosmic rays) increased by 9.3% at the same time. Intensity changes appeared first for particles moving in the azimuthal direction and were followed by those moving in the radial and antiradial directions with respect to the solar radius vector. This unexpected heliospheric "depletion region" may form part of the interface between solar plasma and the galaxy.

Magnetic Field Observations as Voyager 1 Entered the Heliosheath Depletion Region

Magnetic fields measured by Voyager 1 (V1) show that the spacecraft crossed the boundary of an unexpected region five times between days 210 and ~238 in 2012. The magnetic field strength B increased across this boundary from ≈0.2 to ≈0.4 nanotesla, and B remained near 0.4 nanotesla until at least day 270, 2012. The strong magnetic fields were associated with unusually low counting rates of >0.5 mega-electron volt per nuclear particle. The direction of B did not change significantly across any of the five boundary crossings; it was very uniform and very close to the spiral magnetic field direction, which was observed throughout the heliosheath. The observations indicate that V1 entered a region of the heliosheath (the heliosheath depletion region), rather than the interstellar medium.

Voyager 1 Observes Low-Energy Galactic Cosmic Rays in a Region Depleted of Heliospheric Ions

On 25 August 2012, Voyager 1 was at 122 astronomical units when the steady intensity of low-energy ions it had observed for the previous 6 years suddenly dropped for a third time and soon completely disappeared as the ions streamed away into interstellar space. Although the magnetic field observations indicate that Voyager 1 remained inside the heliosphere, the intensity of cosmic ray nuclei from outside the heliosphere abruptly increased. We report the spectra of galactic cosmic rays down to ~3 × 10(6) electron volts per nucleon, revealing H and He energy spectra with broad peaks from 10 × 10(6) to 40 × 10(6) electron volts per nucleon and an increasing galactic cosmic-ray electron intensity down to ~10 × 10(6) electron volts.

A slow bow shock ahead of the heliosphere

Current estimates of plasma parameters in the local interstellar medium indicate that the speed of the interstellar wind, i.e., the relative speed of the local interstellar cloud with respect to the Sun, is most likely less than both the fast magnetosonic speed (subfast) and the Alfvén speed (sub‐Alfvénic) but greater than the slow magnetosonic speed (superslow). In this peculiar parameter regime, MHD theory postulates a slow magnetosonic shock ahead of the heliosphere, provided that the angle between the interstellar magnetic field and the interstellar plasma flow velocity is quite small (e.g., 15° to 30°). In this likely scenario, our multifluid MHD model of the heliospheric interface self‐consistently produces a spatially confined quasi‐parallel slow bow shock. Voyager 1 is heading toward the slow bow shock, while Voyager 2 is not, which means that the two spacecraft are expected to encounter different interstellar plasma populations beyond the heliopause. The slow bow shock also affects the density and spatial extent of the neutral hydrogen wall.

MAGNETICALLY CONFINED INTERSTELLAR HOT PLASMA IN THE NUCLEAR BULGE OF OUR GALAXY

The origin of the Galactic center diffuse X-ray emission (GCDX) is still under intense investigation. In particular, the interpretation of the hot (kT ~ 7 keV) component of the GCDX, characterised by the strong Fe 6.7 keV line emission, has been contentious. If the hot component originates from a truly diffuse interstellar plasma, not a collection of unresolved point sources, such plasma cannot be gravitationally bound, and its regeneration would require a huge amount of energy. Here we show that the spatial distribution of the GCDX does NOT correlate with the number density distribution of an old stellar population traced by near-infrared light, strongly suggesting a significant contribution of the diffuse interstellar plasma. Contributions of the old stellar population to the GCDX are implied to be about 50 % and 20 % in the Nuclear stellar disk and Nuclear star cluster, respectively. For the Nuclear stellar disk, a scale height of 0.32 +- 0.02 deg is obtained for the first time from the stellar number density profiles. We also show the results of the extended near-infrared polarimetric observations in the central 3 deg * 2 deg region of our Galaxy, and confirm that the GCDX region is permeated by a large scale, toroidal magnetic field as previously claimed. Together with observed magnetic field strengths close to energy equipartition, the hot plasma could be magnetically confined, reducing the amount of energy required to sustain it.

Detection of decametre-wavelength pulsed radio emission of 40 known pulsars

The study of pulsars at the lowest radio frequencies observable from the ground (10-30 MHz) is complicated by strong interstellar (dispersion, scattering) and ionospheric (scintillation, refraction) propagation effects, as well as intense Galactic background noise and interference. However, it permits us to measure interstellar plasma parameters (the effects of which increase by a power of two to >4 times the wavelength), the spectrum and the pulse profile at low frequencies more accurately. Up to now, only ˜10 pulsars have been successfully detected at these frequencies. The recent upgrade of the receivers at the Ukrainian T-shaped Radio telescope, second modification (UTR-2) has increased its sensitivity and motivated a new search for pulsed radio emissions. In this work we carried out a survey of known pulsars with declination above -10°, period >0.1 s and dispersion measure (DM) < 30 pc cm-3, i.e. a sample of 74 sources. Our goal was either to detect pulsars not recorded before in the decametre range or to identify factors that prevent their detection. As a result, we have detected the radio emission of 40 pulsars, i.e. 55 per cent of the observed sample. For 30 of them, this was a first detection at these frequencies. Parameters of their average profiles have been calculated, including the intrinsic widening of the pulse (not due to interstellar scattering) with decreasing frequency. Furthermore, two pulsars beyond the selected DM (B0138+59 with DM ≈ 35 pc cm-3 and B0525+21 with DM ≈51 pc cm-3) were also detected. Our results indicate that there is still room to detect new transient and pulsed sources with low-frequency observations.

Collision and recombination driven instabilities in variable charged dusty plasmas

The dust-acoustic instability driven by recombination of electrons and ions on the surface of charged and variably-charged dust grains as well as by collisions in dusty plasmas with significant pressure of background neutrals have been theoretically investigated. The recombination driven instability is shown to be dominant in the long wavelength regime even in the presence of dust-neutral and ion-neutral collisions, while in the shorter wavelength regime, the dust-neutral collision is found to play a major role. In an earlier research work, the dust-neutral collision was neglected in comparison to the effect due to the recombination for estimating the dust-acoustic instability; later the other report shows that the recombination effect is negligible in the presence of dust-neutral collisions. In line of this present situation our investigation revealed that the recombination is more important than dust-neutral collisions in laboratory plasma and fusion plasma, while the dust-neutral collision frequency is dominant in the interstellar plasmas. The effects of ion and dust densities and ion streaming on the recombination and collision driven mode in parameter regimes relevant for many experimental studies on dusty plasmas have also been calculated.

Planar Gardner solitons and double layers in dusty electronegative plasmas with kappa distributed electrons

A theoretical investigation has been made on the Dust ion-acoustic (DIA) Gardner solitons (GSs) and double layers (DLs) in electronegative plasma consisting of inertial positive and negative ions, super-thermal (kappa distributed) electrons, and negatively charged static dust. The standard reductive perturbation method is employed to derive the Korteweg-de Vries (K-dV), modified K-dV (mK-dV), and standard Gardner equations, which admits solitary waves (SWs) and DLs solutions. It have been found that GSs and DLs exist for α around its critical value α c , where α c is the value of α corresponding to the vanishing of the nonlinear coefficient of the K-dV equation. The parametric regimes for the existence of both the positive as well as negative SWs and negative DLs are obtained. The basic features of DIA SWs and DLs are analyzed and it has been found that the polarity, speed, height, thickness of such DIA SWs and DLs structures, are significantly modified due to the presence of two types of ions and spectral index (κ) of super-thermal electrons. It has also been found that the characteristics of DIA GSs and DLs, are different from that of the K-dV solitons and mK-dV solitons. The relevance of our results to different interstellar space plasma situations are discussed.

“RadioAstron”-A telescope with a size of 300 000 km: Main parameters and first observational results

The Russian Academy of Sciences and Federal Space Agency, together with the participation of many international organizations, worked toward the launch of the RadioAstron orbiting space observatory with its onboard 10-m reflector radio telescope from the Baikonur cosmodrome on July 18, 2011. Together with some of the largest ground-based radio telescopes and a set of stations for tracking, collecting, and reducing the data obtained, this space radio telescope forms a multi-antenna ground-space radio interferometer with extremely long baselines, making it possible for the first time to study various objects in the Universe with angular resolutions a million times better than is possible with the human eye. The project is targeted at systematic studies of compact radio-emitting sources and their dynamics. Objects to be studied include supermassive black holes, accretion disks, and relativistic jets in active galactic nuclei, stellar-mass black holes, neutron stars and hypothetical quark stars, regions of formation of stars and planetary systems in our and other galaxies, interplanetary and interstellar plasma, and the gravitational field of the Earth. The results of ground-based and inflight tests of the space radio telescope carried out in both autonomous and ground-space interferometric regimes are reported. The derived characteristics are in agreement with the main requirements of the project. The astrophysical science program has begun.