A one-dimensional hybrid technique (particle ions and fluid electrons) is used to study the cometary diamagnetic cavity surface (CS). This hybrid study is unique in that it includes the effects of binary ion-ion Coulomb collisions, an important process in the dense inner coma. The equilibrium location of the CS is maintained by a force balance mainly between the ion-neutral drag force and the magnetic pressure gradient force. However, the detailed structure of the CS layer also depends on properties of the plasma such as the thermal pressure. Significant variations of the ion density, ion flow speed, and magnetic field strength take place across the CS boundary layer. Our hybrid code description of the CS structure compares favorably with the data from experiments onboard the Giotto spacecraft. When compared to the magnetohydrodynamical (fluid) results of Cravens (1989), there is good agreement on the ''core'' width of the plasma density enhancement and on the width of the current layer associated with the magnetic field gradient, but a large discrepancy exists in the width of the ion flow speed transition because of the failure of the fluid model to discern particle effects.

Related to this, the hybrid code ion density enhancement is not symmetric as a result of a magnetically reflected, backstreaming ion population within the cavity. The core width of this enhancement (Δn) is highly dependent upon the dissociative recombination rate coefficient, and the hybrid results agree to within 20 percent with the fluid model results of Cravens (1989). The width of the velocity transition (Δv), or the ''tail'' of the density enhancement, is determined by the collision time for the backstreaming ions. The effect of Coulomb collisions is to decrease Δv by a factor of 2. The magnetic field transition has a width (ΔB) that is of the order of a few ion gyroradii. Disrupting the ion gyration by including the effects of binary ion-ion Coulomb collisions alters the role of the ions as the dominant current carriers within the current layer and slightly reduces ΔB. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1995