Role of charge exchange in the interaction of cold neutral gas and hot plasma

E. Provornikova (1) , V. Izmodenov (1) , Rosine Lallement (2)

1 Department of Aeromechanics and Gas Dynamics [Moscow]
2 SA - Service d'aéronomie

Physical importance of the charge-exchange process in the interaction of the cold neutral cloud with surrounding hot fully ionized plasma is investigated. A non-stationary one-dimensional two-component model is presented. It is assumed in the model that the cloud consists of atomic hydrogen. Plasma is assumed to be quasi-neutral and magnetic fields are ignored. We demonstrate distribution of gas-dynamic parameters for plasma and neutral components in the interaction region and investigate time evolution of the interaction interface from the beginning of the interaction between neutral gas and plasma to very large time-intervals.Charge-exchange of atoms with heavy ions is a possible source of the X-ray emission. The charge-exchange rate as function of distance and time is shown. This rate being scaled with the relative abundances of minor heavy ions and with corresponding ion-atom cross-sections can be used to estimate X-ray emissivity for different astrophysical objects

Mots clés: Plasma applications; Shock waves; Interplanetary magnetic fields; X-rays

Domaines: Astrophysique stellaire et solaire [astro-ph.SR]; Astrophysique stellaire et solaire [astro-ph.SR]

E. Provornikova, V. Izmodenov, Rosine Lallement. Role of charge exchange in the interaction of cold neutral gas and hot plasma. The Local Bubble and Beyond II: Proceedings of the International Conference. AIP Conference Proceedings, Volume 1156, Apr 2008, Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), United States. pp.280-284, ⟨10.1063/1.3211827⟩. ⟨hal-00416209⟩