Abstract
Williams et al. (1997) have suggested that a population of hot hydrogen atoms is created in the heliosphere through elastic H-H collisions between energetic `solar' atoms (neutralized solar wind) and interstellar atoms. They used a BGK-like approximation (Bhatnagar et al., 1954) for the Boltzmann collision term and the collision cross sections suggested by Dalgarno (1960). We show that both assumptions result in a significant overestimation of the the H-H collision effect. On the basis of calculated momentum transfer cross-sections for elastic H-H collisions, we argue that elastic H-H and H-p collisions cannot produce hot H atoms in the heliosphere.
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Izmodenov, V.V., Malama, Y.G., Kalinin, A.P. et al. Hot Neutral H in the Heliosphere: Elastic H-H, H-p Collisions. Astrophysics and Space Science 274, 71–76 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026531519864
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026531519864