Effects of dispersion of the dust velocity in the LISM on the interstellar dust distribution inside the heliosphere

TL;DR

This paper investigates how variations in dust particle velocities in the local interstellar medium influence the distribution of interstellar dust within the heliosphere, revealing that even minor velocity dispersions significantly alter density singularities.

Contribution

It demonstrates that velocity dispersion in interstellar dust critically affects the density distribution and smooths out previously identified singularities.

Findings

Velocity dispersion significantly alters dust density distribution.

Small velocity variations smooth out density singularities.

Distribution of interstellar dust is highly sensitive to velocity dispersion.

Abstract

Interstellar dust (ISD) penetrates into the heliosphere due to the relative motion of the Sun and the local interstellar medium (LISM). Inside the heliosphere and at the boundaries, where solar wind interacts with the LISM, distribution of ISD is modified due to the action of the electromagnetic forces, the solar gravitation and the radiation pressure. These forces make the distribution of the ISD particles in the heliosphere inhomogeneous. In previous work we demonstrated the existence of singularities in the ISD density distribution at 0.03 - 10 a.u. north and south with respect to the heliospheric current sheet. In this paper we show that dispersion in the ISD velocity distribution strongly affects the singularities. Even small values of dispersion have the drastic impact on the density distribution and smooth the high density layers discovered previously.