Effects of non‐Maxwellian electron velocity distribution functions and nonspherical geometry on minor ions in the solar wind

A previous model has shown that in order to account for the charge state distribution in the low‐speed solar wind a high coronal temperature is necessary and that this temperature peak goes together with a peak of n α / n p in the corona. In the present paper, one of the assumptions made previously, i.e., that coronal electrons are Maxwellian, is relaxed, and a much cooler model is presented, which could account for the same oxygen charge states in the solar wind due to the inclusion of non‐Maxwellian electrons. Also, due to a different choice of the coronal magnetic field geometry, this model would show no enhancement of the coronal n α / n p . Results of the two models are then compared, and observational tests to distinguish between the two scenarios are proposed: comparison of directly measured coronal T e to charge state measurements in the solar wind, determination of the coronal n α / n p , measurement of ion speeds in the acceleration region of the solar wind, and measurement of the frozen‐in silicon charge state distribution.