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ASTRA Proceedings An open-access journal for refereed proceedings in extraterrestrial research
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We develop a simple diffusive model of the propagation of cosmic rays and the associated cosmic ray anisotropy due to cosmic ray streaming against the local interstellar flow. We show that the local plasma and field conditions sampled by IBEX provide characteristics that consistently explain TeV cosmic ray anisotropies. These results support models that place the interstellar magnetic field direction near the center of the IBEX ribbon.
Articles | Volume 2
ASTRA Proc., 2, 9–16, 2015
https://doi.org/10.5194/ap-2-9-2015
ASTRA Proc., 2, 9–16, 2015
https://doi.org/10.5194/ap-2-9-2015

  08 Sep 2015

08 Sep 2015

A Consistent Scenario for the IBEX Ribbon, Anisotropies in TeV Cosmic Rays, and the Local Interstellar Medium

N. A. Schwadron2,1, P. Frisch3, F. C. Adams4, E. R. Christian5, P. Desiati6, H. O. Funsten7, J. R. Jokipii8, D. J. McComas2,10, E. Moebius1, and G. Zank9 N. A. Schwadron et al.
  • 1University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, 03824, UK
  • 2Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX 78228, USA
  • 3University of Chicago, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
  • 4University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA
  • 5Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, 20771
  • 6IceCube Research Center and Astronomy Department, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA
  • 7Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, USA
  • 8University of Arizona, Tucson, AX 85721, USA
  • 9University of Alabama, Huntsville, AL, Huntsville, AL 35899, USA
  • 10University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA

Abstract. The Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) observes enhanced ~ keV energy Energetic Neutral Atoms (ENAs) from a narrow "ribbon" that stretches across the sky and appears to be centered on the direction of the local interstellar magnetic field. The Milagro collaboration, the Asγ collaboration and the IceCube observatory have made global maps of TeV cosmic rays. This paper provides links between these disparate observations. We develop a simple diffusive model of the propagation of cosmic rays and the associated cosmic ray anisotropy due to cosmic ray streaming against the local interstellar flow. We show that the local plasma and field conditions sampled by IBEX provide characteristics that consistently explain TeV cosmic ray anisotropies. These results support models that place the interstellar magnetic field direction near the center of the IBEX ribbon.

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Short summary
We develop a simple diffusive model of the propagation of cosmic rays and the associated cosmic ray anisotropy due to cosmic ray streaming against the local interstellar flow. We show that the local plasma and field conditions sampled by IBEX provide characteristics that consistently explain TeV cosmic ray anisotropies. These results support models that place the interstellar magnetic field direction near the center of the IBEX ribbon.
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