David J. McComas’s research while affiliated with Princeton University and other places

This study provides a detailed analysis of 14 distant interplanetary shocks observed by the Solar Wind Around Pluto instrument on board New Horizons. These shocks were observed with a pickup ion data cadence of approximately 30 minutes, covering a heliocentric distance range of ∼52–60 au. All the shocks observed within this distance range are fast forward shocks, and the shock compression ratios vary between ∼1.2 and 1.9. The shock transition scales are generally narrow, and the SW density compressions are more pronounced compared to the previous study of seven shocks by D. J. McComas et al. A majority (64%) of these shocks have upstream sonic Mach numbers greater than 1. In addition, all high-resolution measurements of distant interplanetary shocks analyzed here show that the shock transition scale is independent of the shock compression ratio. However, the shock transition scale is strongly anticorrelated with the shock speed in the upstream plasma frame, meaning faster shocks generally yield sharper transitions.

Kappa distributions, their statistical framework, and their thermodynamic origin describe systems with correlations among their particle energies, residing in stationary states out of classical thermal equilibrium/space plasmas, from solar wind to the outer heliosphere, are such systems. We show how correlations from long-range interactions compete with collisions to define the specific shape of particle velocity distributions, using a simple numerical experiment with collisions and a variable amount of correlation among the particles. When the correlations are turned off, collisions drive any initial distribution to evolve toward equilibrium and a Maxwell–Boltzmann (MB) distribution. However, when some correlation is introduced, the distribution evolves toward a different stationary state defined by a kappa distribution with some finite value of the thermodynamic kappa κ (where κ→∞ corresponds to a MB distribution). Furthermore, the stronger the correlations, the lower the κ value. This simple numerical experiment illuminates the role of correlations in forming stationary state particle distributions, which are described by kappa distributions, as well as the physical interpretation of correlations from long-range interactions and how they are related to the thermodynamic kappa.

This study provides a detailed analysis of fourteen distant interplanetary shocks observed by the Solar Wind Around Pluto (SWAP) instrument onboard New Horizons. These shocks were observed with a pickup ion data cadence of approximately 30 minutes, covering a heliocentric distance range of ~52-60 au. All the shocks observed within this distance range are fast-forward shocks, and the shock compression ratios vary between ~1.2 and 1.9. The shock transition scales are generally narrow, and the SW density compressions are more pronounced compared to the previous study of seven shocks by McComas et al. (2022). A majority (64%) of these shocks have upstream sonic Mach numbers greater than one. In addition, all high-resolution measurements of distant interplanetary shocks analyzed here show that the shock transition scale is independent of the shock compression ratio. However, the shock transition scale is strongly anti-correlated with the shock speed in the upstream plasma frame, meaning that faster shocks generally yield sharper transitions.

Starting from the concept of entropy defect in thermodynamics, we construct the entropy formulation of space plasmas, and then use it to develop a measure of their stationarity. In particular, we show that statistics of this entropy results in two findings that improve our understanding of stationary and nonstationary systems: (i) variations of the Boltzmann-Gibbs (BG) entropy do not exceed twice the value of the thermodynamic kappa, the parameter that provides a measure of the entropy defect in both stationary and nonstationary states, while becomes the shape parameter that labels the kappa distributions in stationary states; and (ii) the ratio of the deviation of the BG entropy with kappa scales with the kappa deviation via a power-law, while the respective exponent provides a stationarity deviation index (SDI), which measures the natural tendency of the system to depart from stationarity. We confirm the validity of these findings in three different heliospheric plasma datasets observed from three missions: (1) A solar energetic particle event, recorded by the Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun instrument onboard Parker Solar Probe; (2) Near Earth solar wind protons recorded by the Solar Wind Experiment instrument onboard WIND; and (3) Plasma protons in the inner heliosphere, source of energetic neutral atoms recorded by IBEX. The full strength and capability of the entropic deviation ratio and SDI can now be used by the space physics community for analyzing and characterizing the stationarity of space plasmas, as well as other researchers for analyzing any other correlated systems.

The outer heliosphere is profoundly influenced by nonthermal energetic pickup ions (PUIs), which dominate the internal pressure of the solar wind beyond ~10 au, surpassing both solar wind and magnetic pressures. PUIs are formed mostly through charge exchange between interstellar neutral atoms and solar wind ions. This study examines the apparent heating of PUIs in the distant supersonic solar wind before reaching the heliospheric termination shock. New Horizons’ SWAP observations reveal an unexpected PUI temperature change between 2015 and 2020, with a notable bump in PUI temperature. Concurrent observations from the ACE and Wind spacecraft at 1 au indicate a ~50% increase in solar wind dynamic pressure at the end of 2014. Our simulation suggests that the bump observed in the PUI temperature by New Horizons is largely associated with the enhanced solar wind dynamic pressure observed at 1 au. Additional PUI temperature enhancements imply the involvement of other heating mechanisms. Analysis of New Horizons data reveals a correlation between shocks and PUI heating during the declining phase of the solar cycle. Using a PUI-mediated plasma model, we explore shock structures and PUI heating, finding that shocks preferentially heat PUIs over the thermal solar wind in the outer heliosphere. We also show that the broad shock thickness observed by New Horizons is due to the large diffusion coefficient associated with PUIs. Shocks and compression regions in the distant supersonic solar wind lead to elevated PUI temperatures and thus they can increase the production of energetic neutral atoms with large energy.

Current multi-spacecraft in situ measurements allow for the investigation of the time evolution of energetic particles at interplanetary shocks (IPs) at small (≲0.1 au) heliocentric distances. The energy spectrum of accelerated particles at IPs was shown by a previous 1D transport model that includes both self-excited plus preexisting turbulence and a term representing the escape of particles from the system to gradually steepen as a result of a finite acceleration-to-escape timescales ratio; such a model was found in excellent agreement with the entire sample of the ground-level enhancement spectra of solar cycle 23. We solve the time-dependent case of such a model in the case of diffusion dominated by preexisting turbulence. The average timescale for particle acceleration at various heliocentric distances, from 1 au down to the inner heliosphere (<0.1 au), is shorter than in the no-escape case, as higher energy particles have a shorter time to accelerate before completely leaving the system into the upstream medium. A simple scaling with time of the time-dependent spectrum is provided. We compare the “nose” structure at a few ∼100s keV protons first measured in situ by Parker Solar Probe in crossing the very fast 2022 September 5 shock at 0.07 au; we find that the nose is reasonably well explained by a lack of the highest energy particles not yet produced by the young shock by both our model and the no-escape version.

This Special Topic commemorates the legacy of Eugene Parker and highlights new understandings of the plasma physics of the Sun resulting from the observations, plans, and analyses for the Parker Solar Probe (PSP) and Solar Orbiter (SolO) Missions. In recognition of Eugene Parker's remarkable insights and many contributions, distinguished authors from around the world were invited to present papers in theoretical, computational, and observational heliophysics and astrophysics. A total of 80 authors from 12 countries (Argentina, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, New Zealand, People's Republic of China, Spain, United Kingdom, and United States of America) contributed to the Special Collection. These papers bring the recent research in physics of the Sun to the broader plasma physics community. Many include the latest observations from PSP and SolO and describe new understandings of coronal processes, solar wind structure and dynamics, transient events including nanoflares, and insights into stellar equilibrium and flows.

We introduce the theory of thermodynamic relativity, a unified framework for describing both entropies and velocities, and their respective disciplines of thermodynamics and kinematics, which share a surprisingly identical description with relativity. This is the first study to generalize relativity in a thermodynamic context, leading naturally to anisotropic and nonlinear adaptations of relativity; thermodynamic relativity constitutes a new path of generalization, as compared to the traditional passage from special to general theory based on curved spacetime. We show that entropy and velocity are characterized by three identical postulates, providing the basis of a broader framework of relativity: (1) no privileged reference frame with zero value; (2) existence of an invariant and fixed value for all reference frames; and (3) existence of stationarity. The postulates lead to a unique way of addition for entropies and for velocities, called kappa addition. The theory provides a systematic method of constructing a generalized framework of the theory of relativity, based on the kappa addition, fully consistent with both thermodynamics and kinematics. From the generality of the kappa addition, we focus on the cases corresponding to linear special relativity. Then, we show how the thermodynamic relativity leads to the addition of entropies in nonextensive thermodynamics and the addition of velocities in the isotropic special relativity of Einstein, as in two extreme cases, while intermediate cases correspond to an anisotropic adaptation of relativity. Using thermodynamic relativity for velocities, we construct the anisotropic special relativity (asymmetric Lorentz transformation, nondiagonal metric, energy momentum velocity relations). Then, we discuss the consequences of the anisotropy in known relativistic effects: (1) matter antimatter asymmetry, (2) time dilation, and (3) Doppler effect.

We introduce the theory of thermodynamic relativity, a unified theoretical framework for describing both entropies and velocities, and their respective physical disciplines of thermodynamics and kinematics, which share a surprisingly identical description with relativity. This is the first study to generalize relativity in a thermodynamic context, leading naturally to anisotropic and nonlinear adaptations of relativity; thermodynamic relativity constitutes a new path of generalization, as compared to the “traditional” passage from special to general theory based on curved spacetime. We show that entropy and velocity are characterized by three identical postulates, which provide the basis of a broader framework of relativity: (1) no privileged reference frame with zero value; (2) existence of an invariant and fixed value for all reference frames; and (3) existence of stationarity. The postulates lead to a unique way of addition for entropies and for velocities, called kappa-addition. We develop a systematic method of constructing a generalized framework of the theory of relativity, based on the kappa-addition formulation, which is fully consistent with both thermodynamics and kinematics. We call this novel and unified theoretical framework for simultaneously describing entropy and velocity “thermodynamic relativity”. From the generality of the kappa-addition formulation, we focus on the cases corresponding to linear adaptations of special relativity. Then, we show how the developed thermodynamic relativity leads to the addition of entropies in nonextensive thermodynamics and the addition of velocities in Einstein’s isotropic special relativity, as in two extreme cases, while intermediate cases correspond to a possible anisotropic adaptation of relativity. Using thermodynamic relativity for velocities, we start from the kappa-addition of velocities and construct the basic formulations of the linear anisotropic special relativity; e.g., the asymmetric Lorentz transformation, the nondiagonal metric, and the energy-momentum-velocity relationships. Then, we discuss the physical consequences of the possible anisotropy in known relativistic effects, such as, (i) matter-antimatter asymmetry, (ii) time dilation, and (iii) Doppler effect, and show how these might be used to detect and quantify a potential anisotropy.