Electrons running away from the Sun provide the EMF of a giant discharge between the Sun and the Earth

TL;DR

This paper proposes a model where high-energy runaway electrons escaping from the Sun create the electric field of the solar wind, challenging traditional models and explaining observed electric field profiles.

Contribution

It introduces a new model emphasizing the role of runaway electrons in the heliosphere, contrasting with the Pannekoek-Rosseland-Eddington model, and compares it with experimental data.

Findings

High-energy runaway electrons significantly influence the heliospheric electric field.

The traditional Pannekoek-Rosseland-Eddington model neglects runaway electrons.

Experimental data supports the dual electron flow model involving runaway electrons.

Abstract

In connection with the exit of mankind and its production into open space, the problem of the nature of solar wind (SW) is acute. We have proved that a nonequilibrium inhomogeneous giant gas discharge with huge values of the E/N parameter, which determines the electron temperature, is realized in the heliosphere. This quasi-stationary discharge determines the main parameters of the slow SW in the heliosphere and is the initial background and energy reservoir for all more powerful electrical phenomena in the heliosphere, ionosphere and even in the upper atmosphere of the Earth and the positively charged Sun, connected with the entire heliosphere by reverse electron flows that are unable to leave the positively charged Sun and heliosphere. Our article is devoted to a comparison of the experimental profiles of the global electric field obtained using two methods: 1) by the electron velocity distribution function (in experiments with the Parker solar probe) and 2) by the types of positive ions in the SW (according to experiments on the Prognozz - 7 satellite). We have proved that the Pannekoek-Rosseland-Eddington model does not take into account the important role of high-energy runaway (escape from the Sun) electrons and, accordingly, the duality of electron flows in the heliosphere (from the Sun and towards the Sun). In our model, the slight difference between the opposite currents of high-energy (running away from the Sun) electrons and low-energy (returning to the Sun) electrons is compensated by the current of positive ions and protons from the positively charged Sun - SW (positive ions carry electrons with them).