Cosmic-ray transport in the heliosphere with HelioProp

TL;DR

This paper introduces HelioProp, a public tool that models cosmic-ray transport in the heliosphere, accounting for diffusion, convection, energy losses, and drifts, crucial for understanding cosmic-ray fluxes and dark matter detection.

Contribution

The paper presents HelioProp, a novel, comprehensive, charge-dependent modeling tool for cosmic-ray propagation in the heliosphere, enhancing accuracy over previous models.

Findings

HelioProp effectively simulates cosmic-ray transport processes.

The model shows significant effects on antiparticle fluxes relevant for dark matter detection.

Charge-dependent effects are crucial for accurate cosmic-ray flux predictions.

Abstract

Before being detected at Earth, charged cosmic rays propagate across the Solar System and undergo interactions with the turbulent solar wind and with the heliospheric magnetic field. As a result, they are subject to a series of processes that include diffusion, convection, energy losses and drifts, which significantly affect the shape and the intensity of the cosmic-ray fluxes at low energies. Here we illustrate how all these mechanisms can be realistically modelled with HelioProp, our public tool designed to treat cosmic-ray transport through the heliosphere in a charge-dependent way. We present a detailed description of the features of the code and we illustrate in a quantitative way the effects that the propagation in the heliosphere can have on the different cosmic-ray species with a particular emphasis on the antiparticle channels relevant for dark matter indirect detection.