Engineering topics

Jokipii, J. R.

Publications and source records attributed to Jokipii, J. R..

At least 19 records

NASA NTRS2014

Global Anisotropies in TeV Cosmic Rays Related to the Sun's Local Galactic Environment from IBEX

Observations with the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) have shown enhanced energetic neutral atom (ENA) emission from a narrow, circular ribbon likely centered on the direction of the local interstellar medium (LISM) magnetic field. Here, we show that recent determinations of the local interstellar velocity, based on interstellar atom measurements with IBEX, are consistent with the interstellar modulation of high-energy (tera-electron volts, TeV) cosmic rays and diffusive propagation from supernova sources revealed in global anisotropy maps of ground-based high-energy cosmic-ray observatories (Milagro, Asg, and IceCube). Establishing a consistent local interstellar magnetic field direction using IBEX ENAs at hundreds to thousands of eV and galactic cosmic rays at tens of TeV has wide-ranging implications for the structure of our heliosphere and its interactions with the LISM, which is particularly important at the time when the Voyager spacecraft are leaving our heliosphere.

Heliosphere↗

NASA NTRS1995

Large-scale magnetic variances near the South Solar Pole

We summarize recent Ulysses observations of the variances over large temporal scales in the interplanetary magnetic field components and their increase as Ulysses approached the South Solar Pole. A model of these fluctuations is shown to provide a very good fit to the observed amplitude and temporal variation of the fluctuations. In addition, the model predicts that the transport of cosmic rays in the heliosphere will be significantly altered by this level of fluctuations. In addition to altering the inward diffusion and drift access of cosmic rays over the solar poles, we find that the magnetic fluctuations also imply a large latitudinal diffusion, caused primarily by the associated field-line random walk.

Jokipii, J. R.↗

NASA NTRS1995

Low-energy ion acceleration at quasi-perpendicular shocks: Transverse diffusion

The problem of ion injection and acceleration at quasi perpendicular shocks has been the subject of some debate over the past two decades. It is widely known that these shocks efficiently accelerate particles that are well in the high-energy tail of the distribution. However, the issue of injection, or the acceleration of low-energy ions, has yet to reach a consensus. The fundamental issue is whether there is enough diffusion normal to the magnetic field for the particles to remain near the shock. Since transverse diffusion is a physical process that is not well understood in space plasmas, this is an important, and difficult issue to address. In this report, we will investigate the ion injection problem by performing test particle orbit integrations using synthesized turbulent fields. These fields are fully three-dimensional so that transverse diffusion is possible (cross-field diffusion is not possible in geometries where the electromagnetic fields are less than three dimensional). The synthesized fields are produced by superimposing a three-dimensional wave field on a background field. For completeness, we will compare the results from this model with the more well-established theories, such as the diffusive approximation and scatter-free shock drift acceleration. We will also compare these results with other numerical simulation techniques such as the well known hybrid simulation, and other test-particle calculations in which the shock fields are specified to have less than three dimensions. We will also discuss some recent relevant observations and how these compare with our results.

Giacalone, J.↗

NASA NTRS1995

Numerical simulation of corotating interaction regions

We report on a numerical simulation of Corotating Interaction Regions (CIRs) in the solar wind. We employ an MHD calculation with a tilted dipole model: slow wind is assumed around the tilted current sheet. As a simplifying assumption the solar wind is kept radial, meridional and azimuthal deflections are neglected. Despite of this simplification the model reproduces several observed features of CIR-s. CIR-s turn out most prominent at mid-latitudes. Toward increasing heliographic latitudes, reverse shocks become dominant, forward shocks tend to become weaker then disappear. The frozen in magnetic field is calculated and applied for the simulation of the transport of cosmic rays in the heliosphere. Some consequences on recurrent cosmic ray phenomena and on the acceleration of energetic particles will be discussed.

Kota, J.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Ion injection and acceleration at quasi-perpendicular shocks

We present and discuss results of a new model for ion injections and acceleration at quasi-perpendicular collisionless shocks. We use the one-dimensional hybrid simulation (kinetic ions/fluid electrons) and impose an assumption on the ion motion so that diffusion across the magnetic field (normal to the shock front) is possible. These motions are otherwise suppressed by both one- and two-dimensional simulations. We find that, even in strictly perpendicular shocks, when scattering normal to the field is included, a fraction of the incident ions are accelerated to suprathermal energies. When reasonable scattering times are considered, only pickup ions are injected, whereas thermal solar wind ions are not. The acceleration of these ions is very rapid. We have found that a few of the initially low-energy pickup ions can reach many tens to a few hundred times the plasma ramming energy in less than 100 gyroperiods. Furthermore, highly field aligned energetic ions are found to exist upstream of the slightly oblique shock. The most direct applications of this study is toward the interpretation of observations of both solar wind and interstellar pickup ion distributions in the vicinity of interplanetary shocks which are most often quasi-perpendicular. This work also directly addresses a fundamental issue with regard to our current understanding of the anomalous component of cosmic rays.

Giacalone, J.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Charged-particle motion in multidimensional magnetic-field turbulence

We present a new analysis of the fundamental physics of charged-particle motion in a turbulent magnetic field using a numerical simulation. The magnetic field fluctuations are taken to be static and to have a power spectrum which is Kolmogorov. The charged particles are treated as test particles. It is shown that when the field turbulence is independent of one coordinate (i.e., k lies in a plane), the motion of these particles across the magnetic field is essentially zero, as required by theory. Consequently, the only motion across the average magnetic field direction that is allowed is that due to field-line random walk. On the other hand, when a fully three-dimensional realization of the turbulence is considered, the particles readily cross the field. Transport coefficients both along and across the ambient magnetic field are computed. This scheme provides a direct computation of the Fokker-Planck coefficients based on the motions of individual particles, and allows for comparison with analytic theory.

Giacalone, J.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Diffusive shock acceleration in the presence of current sheets

We study the nature of diffusive shock acceleration in the presence of current sheets which are oriented normal to the shock, so that the drift along the sheets carries particles either away from or toward the shock plane. We consider a system with periodic regions of alternating magnetic field direction. This can be taken to be a very crude representation of the termination of the solar wind, with the equator being one sheet and the pole, with its rapid opposite drift, being another. We find very important effects of the current sheets. For example, particle intensities at the shock will be enhanced near one sheet and depressed at the other. Furthermore, the intensity at high energies (averaged over the shock plane) may in fact be considerably larger than in the standard one-dimensional infinite shock case. Implications of these results for the possible acceleration of cosmic electrons up to high energies at the solar-wind termination shock will briefly be discussed.

Kota, J.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Concentration of interstellar pickup H(+) and He(+) in the solar wind

We present observations of interstellar pickup hydrogen and helium in the solar wind which show large, highly-correlated fluctuations in flux which are not correlated significantly with the solar-wind hydrogen flux. The correlation of the fluctuations in the two species implies that the fluctuations are caused by transport after ionization. The lack of correlation with the thermal flux means they are not caused by compressions of the wind. We present a new model which can naturally produce the observed fluctuations in the pickup ions.

Gloeckler, G.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Green's formula and variational principles for cosmic-ray transport with application to rotating and shearing flows

Green's theorem and Green's formula for the diffusive cosmic-ray transport equation in relativistic flows are derived. Green's formula gives the solution of the transport equation in terms of the Green's function of the adjoint transport equation, and in terms of distributed sources throughout the region R of interest, plus terms involving the particle intensity and streaming on the boundary. The adjoint transport equation describes the time-reversed particle transport. An Euler-Lagrange variational principle is then obtained for both the mean scattering frame distribution function f, and its adjoint f(dagger). Variations of the variational functional with respect to f(dagger) yield the transport equation, whereas variations of f yield the adjoint transport equation. The variational principle, when combined with Noether's theorem, yields the conservation law associated with Green's theorem. An investigation of the transport equation for steady, azimuthal, rotating flows suggests the introduction of a new independent variable H to replace the comoving frame momentum variable p'. For the case of rigid rotating flows, H is conserved and is shown to be analogous to the Hamiltonian for a bead on a rigidly rotating wire. The variable H corresponds to a balance between the centrifugal force and the particle inertia in the rotating frame. The physical interpretation of H includes a discussion of nonrelativistic and special relativistic rotating flows as well as the cases of aziuthal, differentially rotating flows about Schwarzs-child and Kerr black holes. Green's formula is then applied to the problem of the acceleration of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays by galactic rotation. The model for galactic rotation assumes an angular velocity law Omega = Omega(sub 0)(omega(sub 0)/omega), where omega denotes radial distance from the axis of rotation. Green's functions for the galactic rotation problem are used to investigate the spectrum of accelerated particles arising from monoenergetic and truncated power-law sources. We conclude that it is possible to accelerate particles beyond the knee by galactic rotation, but not in sufficient number to adequately explain the observed spectrum.

Webb, G. M.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Prependicular transport in 1- and 2-dimensional shock simulations

We consider the foundations of 1- and 2-dimensional shock simulations in which the physical quantities are independent of a coordinate which is not parallel to the magnetic field. We show analytically that in such simulations the ions are effectively tied to the convected magnetic lines of force because of the presence of an ignorable spatial coordinate. This conclusion has important consequences. In particular we conclude that the acceleration of energetic charged particles at quasi-perpendicular shocks cannot be properly studied in such simulations because the role of perpendicular diffusion cannot be properly evaluated.

Jokipii, J. R.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Cosmic-ray gradients in the outer heliosphere

We report on a study of the expected spatial variation of the galactic cosmic-ray intensity in the vicinity of the solar-wind termination shock. Model simulations predict that the radial gradients change abruptly at the shock, and that the nature of the effect varies significantly with particle energy. At low energies, the radial gradient changes abruptly from a lower value inside the shock to a higher value outside, whereas at high energies, the higher value of the gradient is inside the shock. This effect, which is a consequence of the matching conditions at the shock and is closely related to diffusive shock acceleration, is qualitatively the same for both heliospheric magnetic polarity states and remains much the same in one-dimensional, two-dimensional and three-dimensional models. Hence drifts do not change the nature of this phenomenon, although they change it quantitatively. The effect may prove to be an important diagnostic tool for the study of the termination of the solar wind.

Kota, J.↗

NASA NTRS1993

The gradient of galactic cosmic rays at the solar-wind termination shock

We report on a study of the expected spatial variation of the galactic cosmic-ray intensity in the outer heliosphere, in the vicinity of the solar-wind termination shock. Model simulations which contain all of the transport effects, including drifts, predict that the radial gradients change abruptly at the shock, and that the nature of the effect varies significantly with particle energy. At low energies, the radial gradient changes abruptly from a lower value inside the shock to a higher value outside, whereas at high energies, the higher value of the gradient is inside the shock. This effect, which is a consequence of the matching conditions at the shock and is closely related to diffusive shock acceleration, is qualitatively the same for both helisopheric magnetic polarity states and remains much the same in one-dimensional, two-dimensional, and three-dimensional models. Hence drifts do not change the nature of this phenomenon, although they change it quantitatively. The effect is, of course, not present in the absence of a terminal shock and may prove to be an important diagnostic tool for the study of the termination of the solar wind.

Jokipii, J. R.↗

NASA NTRS1993

A unified transport equation for both cosmic rays and thermal particles

We present a unified transport equation that is valid for particles of all energies if the particle mean free paths are much smaller than macroscopic fluid length scales. If restricted to particles with random speeds much greater than fluid flow speeds, this equation reduces to the previously discussed extended cosmic-ray transport equation. It is significant that this allows one to describe the acceleration of particles from thermal energies to cosmic-ray energies using one transport equation. This is in contrast to previous transport equations (the Parker equation and the extended cosmic-ray transport equation), which were restricted to fast particles. The close connection to the extended cosmic-ray transport equation is demonstrated.

Williams, L. L.↗

NASA NTRS1993

The telegraph equation in charged particle transport

We present a new derivation of the telegraph equation which modifies its coefficients. First, an infinite order partial differential equation is obtained for the velocity space solid angle-averaged phase-space distribution of particles which underwent at least a few collisions. It is shown that, in the lowest order asymptotic expansion, this equation simplifies to the well-known diffusion equation. The second-order asymptotic expansion for isotropic small-angle scattering results in a modified telegraph equation with a signal propagation speed of v(5/11) exp 1/2 instead of the usual v/3 exp 1/2. Our derivation of a modified telegraph equation follows from an expansion of the Boltzmann equation in the relevant smallness parameters and not from a truncation of an eigenfunction expansion. This equation is consistent with causality. It is shown that, under steady state conditions in a convecting plasma, the telegraph equation may be regarded as a diffusion equation with a modified transport coefficient, which describes a combination of diffusion and cosmic-ray inertia.

Gombosi, T. I.↗

NASA NTRS1992

A determination of the mass of Sagittarius A* from its radio spectral and source size measurements

There is growing evidence that Sgr A* may be a million solar mass black hole accreting from the Galactic center wind. A consideration of the spectral and source size characteristics associated with this process can offer at least two distinct means of inferring the mass M, complementing the more traditional dynamical arguments. We show that M is unmistakably correlated with both the radio spectral index and the critical wavelength below which the intrinsic source size dominates over the angular broadening due to scattering in the interstellar medium. Current observations can already rule out a mass much in excess of 2 x 10 exp 6 solar masses and suggest a likely value close to 1 x 10 exp 6 solar masses, in agreement with an earlier study matching the radio and high-energy spectral components. We anticipate that such a mass may be confirmed with the next generation of source-size observations using milliarcsecond angular resolution at 0.5 - 1 cm wavelengths.

Melia, Fulvio↗

NASA NTRS1992

Viscous and inertial effects at cosmic-ray shocks

To illustrate the effect of the viscous and inertial terms on the structure of cosmic-ray-modified shocks, an analysis of a time-independent 1D shock is presented in which the pressure of the background fluid and the magnetic-field energy density are negligible compared with the cosmic-ray pressure. The effect of the magnetic field on cosmic-ray transport coefficients is retained. The diffusion, viscous and inertial terms work to 'thicken' the shock. When the average magnetic field is negligible and the cosmic-ray transport is isotropic, diffusion is the dominant effect unless the parameters are such that the scattering time becomes comparable to the characteristic times for velocity change in the fluid frame. For a perpendicular shock, where the diffusion is strongly reduced by the magnetic field, the relative magnitude of the viscous effect is increased by a factor about (omega tau) exp 2, leading to the conclusion that cosmic-ray viscosity can be important to the structure of collisionless MHD shocks. In both cases considered, the viscous and inertial terms become important for those parameter ranges where the diffusion approximation begins to break down.

Jokipii, J. R.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Probing the heliosphere with energetic hydrogen atoms

The idea of using energetic neutral atoms (ENAs), produced by charge exchange between energetic ions and ambient neutral atoms, as a diagnostic tool to investigate planetary magnetospheres from a distance has been extended to the investigation of the heliosphere. The paper explores what one can reasonably expect of the heliospheric ENA (HSENA) and what criteria would be imposed on HSENA instruments by concentrating on 10-10 exp 3 keV protons in quiet-time interplanetary space, solar-flare events, corotating interaction regions, and populations have distinctive signatures and that the detection of these particles can reveal energy spatial and propagation of ions in 3D interplanetary space, including the solar-wind termination shock. Such breadth of information could not be gained by in situ means.

Hsieh, K. C.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Constraints on the acceleration of anomalous cosmic rays

The recent determination of an upper limit of 0.2 pc on the distance to the source of the anomalous cosmic rays, and the implied upper limit on their age imposes a significant observational constraint on possible acceleration mechanisms. Adiabatic cooling in the expanding wind makes the constraints significantly more stringent. In the light of these constraints, the rate of second-order Fermi acceleration is much too low to play a significant role. Diffusive shock acceleration, even at the strong termination shock of the solar wind, is sufficient only if one discards the standard expression for the maximum acceleration rate based on the Bohm limit. Only diffusive acceleration at the quasi-perpendicular solar wind termination shock has a high enough acceleration rate to be the source of the anomalous component.

Jokipii, J. R.↗