Dust-Plasma-Gas Interactions in the Heliosphere

Abstract

AbstractSeveral, different forms of how neutral gases and dusty media can interact with a plasma have been discussed in the Literature. Common to all of these interactions is that they in principle lead to changes in both the composition and dynamical state of all interacting media. The most important scenarios in the heliosphere involving these kinds of interactions are described in this paper. Special emphasis is placed on the solar wind interaction with the zodiacal dust. In regard to the dust, this leads to severe complications with respect to its dynamics due to the plasma Poynting- Robertson effect and due to Lorentz scatterings. As for the plasma, this causes the appearance of dust-generated neutrals and secondary ions. An influence on the plasma dynamics, at least in the present solar system, can be neglected. The surface chemistry of the plasma-dust reactions is described in some detail here, and the densities and fluxes of exotic, dust-generated ions not originally belonging to the coronal solar wind are calculated. Observabilities of these neutrals and ions are investigated and it is discussed how physical, chemical, and dynamical parameters of the zodiacal dust cloud could be derived from these observations.