Implications of Voyager 1 observations beyond the heliopause for the local interstellar electron spectrum

Abstract

Cosmic-ray observations made by the Voyager 1 spacecraft outside the dominant modulating influence of the heliosphere finally allow the comparison of computed galactic spectra with experimental data at lower energies. These computed spectra, based on galactic propagation models, can now be compared with observations at low energies by Voyager 1 and at high energies by the PAMELA space detector at Earth. This improves understanding of basic propagation effects and also provides solar modulation studies with reliable input spectra from 1 MeV to 100 GeV. We set out to reproduce the Voyager 1 electron observations in the energy range of 6-60 MeV, as well as the PAMELA electron spectrum above 10 GeV, using the GALPROP code. By varying the source spectrum and galactic diffusion parameters, specifically the rigidity dependence of spatial diffusion, we find local interstellar spectra that agree with both power-law spectra observed by Voyager 1 beyond the heliopause. The local interstellar spectrum between ~1 MeV and 100 GeV indicates that it is the combination of two power laws, with E –(1.45 ± 0.15) below ~100 MeV and E –(3.15 ± 0.05) above ~100 MeV. A gradual turn in the spectral shape matching the power laws is found, between 2.0 ± 0.5) GeV and (100 ± 10) MeV. According to our simplified modeling, this transition is caused primarily by galactic propagation effects. We find that the intensity beyond the heliopause at 10 MeV is (350 ± 50) electrons m–2 s–1 sr–1 MeV–1, decreasing to (50 ± 5) electrons m–2 s–1 sr–1 MeV–1 at 100 MeV.