Strong Preferential Ion Heating is Limited to within the Solar Alfven Surface

Abstract

The decay of the solar wind helium to hydrogen temperature ratio due to Coulomb thermalization can be used to measure how far from the Sun strong preferential ion heating occurs. Previous work has shown that a zone of preferential ion heating, resulting in mass-proportional temperatures, extends about $20-40R_{\odot }$ from the Sun on average. Here we look at the motion of the outer boundary of this zone with time and compare it to other physically meaningful distances. We report that the boundary moves in lockstep with the Alfvén point over the solar cycle, contracting and expanding with solar activity with a correlation coefficient of better than 0.95 and with an RMS difference of $4.23R_{\odot }$. Strong preferential ion heating apparently is predominatly active below the Alfvén point. To definitively identify the underlying preferential heating mechanisms, it will be necessary to make in situ measurements of the local plasma conditions below the Alfvén surface. We predict Parker Solar Probe (PSP) will be the first spacecraft to directly observe this heating in action, but only a couple of years after launch as activity increases, the zone expands, and PSP's perihelion drops.

arXiv comment5 pages, 5 figures, accepted in ApJL

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• Alpha-proton Differential Flow of the Young Solar Wind: Parker Solar Probe Observations
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• Linear Stability in the Inner Heliosphere: Helios Reëvaluated
• Flux conservation, radial scalings, Mach numbers, and critical distances in the solar wind: magnetohydrodynamics and Ulysses observations
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• Inward Propagating Plasma Parcels in the Solar Corona: Models with Aerodynamic Drag, Ablation, and Snowplow Accretion
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