Reconnection at the Heliopause.pdf

a r X i v : a s t r o - p h / 0 5 0 5 5 5 3 v 1 2 7 M a y 2 0 0 5 Reconnection at the Heliopause D.H. Nickeler a,b,?, H.-J. Fahr b aAstronomical Institute, Utrecht University, Princetonplein 5, 3584 CC Utrecht, the Netherlands bInstitut fu?r Astrophysik und Extraterrestrische Forschung, Auf dem Hu?gel 71, 53121 Bonn, Germany Abstract In this MHD-model of the heliosphere, we assume a Parker–type flow, and a Parker–type spiral magnetic field, which is extrapolated further downstream from the termination shock to the heliopause. We raise the question whether the he- liopause nose region may be leaky with respect to fields and plasmas due to non- ideal plasma dynamics, implying a breakdown of the magnetic barrier. We analyse some simple scenarios to find reconnection rates and circumstances, under which the heliosphere can be an ”open” or a ”closed” magnetosphere. We do not pretend to offer a complete solution for the heliosphere, on the basis of nonideal MHD the- ory, but present a prescription to find such a solution on the basis of potential fields including the knowledge of neutral points. As an example we imitate the Parker spiral as a monopole with a superposition of homogeneous asymptotical boundary conditions. We use this toy model for x ?R where R = 100AU is the distance of the termination shock to describe the situation in the nose region of the heliopause. Key words: heliosphere, heliopause, magnetic reconnection 1 Introduction In the past several calculations concerning the role of magnetic reconnection in the vicinity of the heliopause have been performed. Fahr et al. (1986)(and references therein) calculated reconnection probabilities and gave estimations for reconnection rates, but without complete reconnection solutions of the non- ideal MHD equations. Here, we present a plane model of the heliosphere in ? Corresponding author. Email addresses: D.H.Nickeler@phys.uu.nl (D.H. Nickeler), hfahr@astro.uni-bonn.de (H.-J. Fahr). Preprint submitted to Else