IBEX-Lo Observations of Secondary Interstellar Helium and Oxygen Distributions

Abstract:

Observations of the Interstellar Boundary EXplorer (IBEX) show, among other features, the pristine interstellar neutral gas flow and additional populations associated with neutral helium and oxygen. Kubiak et al. (2014, ApJS, 213, 29) discovered the “Warm Breeze”, or additional He component, which is slower and warmer than the primary interstellar He population and its flow direction differs by about 19° from the interstellar neutral (ISN) flow. Park et al. (2015, ApJS, In Press) studied the combined count rate maps of heavy neutral atoms with three statistical analysis methods and found an extended tail of the ISN O flow, centered around 190° in ecliptic longitude and +15° in ecliptic latitude, or approximately 38° from the ISN O and Ne flow peak. The most likely sources for the Warm Breeze and the extended O tail may be secondary populations of interstellar He and O, created by charge exchange between ISN atoms and interstellar ions in the outer heliosheath. The charge exchange between interstellar He atoms and He⁺ ions is the most important reaction to generate the secondary neutral He in the outer heliosheath, with a reaction rate of 1.7×10^-10 s^-1 and a mean free path of ~950 AU. For O⁺, the charge exchange with interstellar H atoms with a rate ~1.0×10^-9 s^-1 and a mean free path of ~100 AU is most important. Because the differences in the reaction rates and atomic masses for He and O result in different velocity distributions in the outer heliosheath, the directional distributions of these populations at Earth orbit are not identical. In this study, we use the IBEX flux maps of the observed helium and oxygen atoms to compare their directional distributions. These observed distributions may provide constraints and information to improve our current understanding of the interactions in the outer heliosheath.