Stability of a pickup ion ring-beam population in the outer heliosheath: Implications for the ibex ribbon

Abstract

First results from NASA's Interplanetary Boundary Explorer mission showed an unexpected "ribbon" of enhanced energetic neutral atom (ENA) flux spanning most of the sky. One explanation put forward suggests that the ribbon may be produced by secondary ENAs originating from pickup ions (PUIs) in the outer heliosheath (OHS). These PUIs are generated when primary ENAs born in the solar wind and inner heliosheath cross the heliopause and charge exchange in the nearby interstellar medium. One of the core assumptions underpinning this theory is that the newly born PUI ring is relatively stable with respect to wave generation, so that it can undergo charge exchange before becoming isotropized. We test this assumption using a linear kinetic theory and hybrid simulations of a low-density PUI ring interacting with instability-generated waves in a warm plasma of the OHS. It is shown that a broadband spectrum of waves is excited as a result of the cyclotron instability that efficiently scatters the ring ions. We also show that the ambient fluctuations in the OHS are unlikely to produce a measurable degree of resonant scattering of PUIs because their intensity is too low compared with the waves excited by the instability. © 2010. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A.