An analytic model of plasma-neutral coupling in the heliosphere plasma

TL;DR

This paper introduces an analytic model for plasma-neutral coupling in the heliosphere that uses a $ppa$-distribution to better describe energetic neutral atoms and their effects on the plasma.

Contribution

The model employs a $ppa$-distribution instead of Maxwellian, capturing the long-tail behavior of energetic neutral atoms in the heliosphere.

Findings

The $ppa$-distribution provides a better description of energetic neutral atoms.

Major differences are identified between sources derived from $ppa$ and Maxwellian distributions.

The model enhances understanding of plasma-neutral interactions in the heliosphere.

Abstract

We have developed an analytic model to describe coupling of plasma and neutral fluids in the partially ionized heliosphere plasma medium. The sources employed in our analytic model are based on a $\kappa$-distribution as opposed to the Maxwellian distribution function. Our model uses the $\kappa$-distribution to analytically model the energetic neutral atoms that result in the heliosphere partially ionized plasma from charge exchange with the protons and subsequently produce a long tail which is otherwise not describable by the Maxwellian distribution. We present our analytic formulation and describe major differences in the sources emerging from these two distinct distributions.