Interstellar Dust Dynamics and the Large-Scale Structure of our Heliosphere

The local interstellar medium contains plasma, magnetic fields, neutral atoms, cosmic rays, and dust which all influence the heliosphere through interconnected time-dependent and multi-scale processes. The Interstellar Dust Experiment (IDEX) instrument onboard NASA's IMAP mission, to be launched in early 2025, will measure the flux, size distribution, and composition of interstellar (ISD) and interplanetary (IDP) dust particles characterizing the inflowing solid matter from the local interstellar medium reaching the inner heliosphere. IDEX dust detection is based on impact ionization, where elemental and molecular ions are generated in a high-velocity dust impact and analyzed in a time-of-flight (TOF) setup. The size, composition, and the large-scale structure of the heliospheric magnetic fields strongly influence the propagation of the charged ISD particles, including the effects of the so-called heliospheric filtering that prevents small ISD particles from entering the heliosphere. We report on the status of our modeling results and predictions for the expected IDEX measurements.