Understanding the IBEX ribbon using the kinetic model of pickup proton transport in a scatter-free limit

TL;DR

This paper develops a kinetic model to simulate secondary ENA fluxes and explains the IBEX ribbon phenomenon, achieving qualitative and quantitative agreement with observations, especially emphasizing the role of ENAs from the inner heliosheath.

Contribution

The study introduces a kinetic model of pickup proton transport in a scatter-free limit to explain the IBEX ribbon, including the first consideration of ENAs from the inner heliosheath.

Findings

Qualitative reproduction of IBEX-Hi ribbon observations.

Good quantitative agreement at low heliolatitudes.

Underestimation of fluxes at high heliolatitudes due to model limitations.

Abstract

One of the most remarkable discoveries by the IBEX is the ribbon - a narrow band of enhanced ENA fluxes observed in the sky. The prevailing explanation attributes the IBEX ribbon to the secondary ENA mechanism. In this process, primary H ENAs, produced via charge exchange between solar wind (SW) protons and interstellar H atoms within the heliosphere, travel beyond the heliopause (HP) and undergo further charge exchange with protons of the LISM, generating pickup protons. Some of these pickup protons subsequently experience charge exchange with interstellar H atoms, forming secondary ENAs, some of which travel back toward the Sun and are detected by the IBEX. This paper presents a kinetic model developed to simulate secondary ENA fluxes. Ribbon simulations are performed using global distributions of plasma and H atoms in the heliosphere derived from a kinetic-MHD model of the SW/LISM interaction. The model accounts for all relevant primary ENA populations, including neutralized thermal SW protons, neutralized pickup protons, and ENAs originating in the inner heliosheath (IHS). The transport of pickup protons beyond the HP is described by the focused transport equation for a gyrotropic velocity distribution in the scatter-free limit, assuming no pitch-angle scattering or energy diffusion. Our simulations qualitatively reproduce IBEX-Hi ribbon observations and exhibit good quantitative agreement at low heliolatitudes. However, the model underestimates fluxes at high heliolatitudes, likely due to the omission of non-stationary SW behavior in the stationary framework used in this work. The study highlights the importance of ENAs from the IHS, a population considered for the ribbon production in the frame of the kinetic model of pickup proton transport in the heliosphere for the first time, for accurately reproducing ribbon fluxes observed by IBEX-Hi at the highest energy steps.