2,695 research outputs found

    A Predicted Small and Round Heliosphere

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    The shape of the solar wind bubble within the interstellar medium, the so-called heliosphere, has been explored over six decades. As the Sun moves through the surrounding partially-ionized medium, neutral hydrogen atoms penetrate the heliosphere, and through charge-exchange with the supersonic solar wind, create a population of hot pick-up ions (PUIs). The Termination Shock (TS) crossing by Voyager 2 (V2) data demonstrated that the heliosheath (HS) (the region of shocked solar wind) pressure is dominated by suprathermal particles. Here we use a novel magnetohydrodynamic model that treats the freshly ionized PUIs as a separate fluid from the thermal component of the solar wind. Unlike previous models, the new model reproduces the properties of the PUIs and solar wind ions based on the New Horizon and V2 spacecraft observations. The PUIs charge exchange with the cold neutral H atoms of the ISM in the HS and are quickly depleted. The depletion of PUIs cools the heliosphere downstream of the TS, "deflating" it and leading to a narrower HS and a smaller and rounder shape, in agreement with energetic neutral atom observations by the Cassini spacecraft. The new model, with interstellar magnetic field orientation constrained by the IBEX ribbon, reproduces the magnetic field data outside the HP at Voyager 1(V1). We present the predictions for the magnetic field outside the HP at V2.Comment: submitted to publication - new version after revie

    A predicted small and round heliosphere

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    The shape of the solar wind bubble within the interstellar medium, the so-called heliosphere, has been explored over six decades(1-7). As the Sun moves through the surrounding partially-ionized medium, neutral hydrogen atoms penetrate the heliosphere, and through charge-exchange with the supersonic solar wind, create a population of hot pick-up ions (PUIs). The Voyager 2 (V2) data demonstrated that the heliosheath pressure is dominated by PUIs. Here we use a novel magnetohydrodynamic model that treats the PUIs as a separate fluid from the thermal component of the solar wind. Unlike previous models (8-10), the new model reproduces the properties of the PUIs and solar wind ions based on the New Horizon(11) and V2(12) spacecraft observations. The model significantly changes the energy flow in the outer heliosphere, leading to a smaller and rounder shape than previously predicted, in agreement with energetic neutral atom observations by the Cassini spacecraft.Accepted manuscrip

    Globally Distributed Energetic Neutral Atom Maps for the "Croissant" Heliosphere

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    A recent study by Opher et al. (2015) suggested the heliosphere has a "croissant" shape, where the heliosheath plasma is confined by the toroidal solar magnetic field. The "croissant" heliosphere is in contrast to the classically accepted view of a comet-like tail. We investigate the effect of the "croissant" heliosphere model on energetic neutral atom (ENA) maps. Regardless of the existence of a split tail, the confinement of the heliosheath plasma should appear in ENA maps. ENA maps from the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) have shown two high latitude lobes with excess ENA flux at higher energies in the tail of the heliosphere. These lobes could be a signature of the confinement of the heliosheath plasma, while some have argued they are caused by the fast/slow solar wind profile. Here we present ENA maps of the "croissant" heliosphere, focusing on understanding the effect of the heliosheath plasma collimation by the solar magnetic field while using a uniform solar wind. We incorporate pick-up ions (PUIs) into our model based on Malama et al. (2006) and Zank et al. (2010). We use the neutral solution from our MHD model to determine the angular variation of the PUIs, and include the extinction of PUIs in the heliosheath. In the presence of a uniform solar wind, we find that the collimation in the "croissant" heliosphere does manifest itself into two high latitude lobes of increased ENA flux in the downwind direction.Comment: 14 pages, 1 table, 7 figures, Accepted for publication in Ap

    A Bayesian approach for energy-based estimation of acoustic aberrations in high intensity focused ultrasound treatment

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    High intensity focused ultrasound is a non-invasive method for treatment of diseased tissue that uses a beam of ultrasound to generate heat within a small volume. A common challenge in application of this technique is that heterogeneity of the biological medium can defocus the ultrasound beam. Here we reduce the problem of refocusing the beam to the inverse problem of estimating the acoustic aberration due to the biological tissue from acoustic radiative force imaging data. We solve this inverse problem using a Bayesian framework with a hierarchical prior and solve the inverse problem using a Metropolis-within-Gibbs algorithm. The framework is tested using both synthetic and experimental datasets. We demonstrate that our approach has the ability to estimate the aberrations using small datasets, as little as 32 sonication tests, which can lead to significant speedup in the treatment process. Furthermore, our approach is compatible with a wide range of sonication tests and can be applied to other energy-based measurement techniques
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