Formation and acceleration of nano dust in the inner heliosphere

Abstract

We study the dynamics of nano dust grains in the region inward from 1AU. Assuming that the grains are created with the velocities close to Keplerian, we find that, despite the strong coupling to magnetic field, there is a population of trapped nano grains within about 0.2AU from the Sun. The nano dust grains produced outside of the trapped region are accelerated to high velocities, of the order of 300kms-1, provided that the charge to mass ratio is not much less than 10-5 e/m p. These values correspond to dust sizes equal or smaller than approximately 10nm. © 2010. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.