Center for Astrophysics Research and Technologies Seminar Series
How Stars Get Their Spots
Presented by Nick Nelson (LANL)
Magnetic activity is now being observed in stars across the lower main sequence. Observations rely on the effects of surface magnetic fields, the strongest and largest of which are believed to be generated by large-scale dynamo action in the deep interior. Portions of these large-scale magnetic structures are then believed to rise through the convective layer, forming magnetic loops which then pierce the photosphere as starspots. Previous global simulations of 3D MHD convection in rotating spherical shells have demonstrated mechanisms whereby large-scale magnetic wreaths can be generated in the bulk of the convection zone. Our recent simulations have achieved sufficiently high levels of turbulence to permit portions of these wreaths to become magnetically buoyant and rise through the simulated convective layer by a combination of magnetic buoyancy and advection by convective giant cells. These buoyant magnetic loops are created in the bulk of the convective layer as strong Lorentz force feedback in the cores of the magnetic wreaths dampen small-scale convective motions, permitting the amplification of local magnetic energies to over 100 times the local kinetic energy. While the magnetic wreaths are largely generated the shearing of axisymmetric poloidal magnetic fields by axisymmetric rotational shear (the Ω-effect), the loops are amplified to their peak field strengths before beginning to rise by non-axisymmetric processes. This further extends and enhances a new paradigm for the generation of emergent magnetic flux bundles, which we term turbulence-enabled magnetic buoyancy.
2:00 pm, Thursday, October 23, 2014
PAIS-2540, PAIS
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