Related papers: Magnetic confinement of the solar tachocline
The reason for the observed thinness of the solar tachocline is still not well understood. One of the explanations that have been proposed is that a primordial magnetic field renders the rotation uniform in the radiation zone. We test here…
3D MHD global solar simulations coupling the turbulent convective zone and the radiative zone have been carried out. Essential features of the Sun such as differential rotation, meridional circulation and internal waves excitation are…
A major outstanding problem in solar physics is the confinement of the solar tachocline, the thin shear layer that separates nearly solid-body rotation in the radiative interior from strong differential rotation in the convection zone.…
We show that the MHD theory that explains the solar tachocline by an effect of the magnetic field can work with the decay modes of a fossil field in the solar interior if the meridional flow of the convection zone penetrates slightly the…
Rather weak fossil magnetic fields in the radiative core can produce the solar tachocline if the field is poloidal and almost horizontal in the tachocline region, i.e. if the field is confined within the core. This particular field geometry…
We present the first results from three-dimensional spherical shell simulations of magnetic dynamo action realized by turbulent convection penetrating downward into a tachocline of rotational shear. This permits us to assess several…
We present nonlinear three-dimensional simulations of the stably-stratified portion of the solar tachocline in which the rotational shear is maintained by mechanical forcing. When a broad toroidal field profile is specified as an initial…
We review recent advances in modeling global-scale convection and dynamo processes with the Anelastic Spherical Harmonic (ASH) code. In particular, we have recently achieved the first global-scale solar convection simulations that exhibit…
We present axisymmetric simulations of the coupled convective and radiative regions in the Sun in order to investigate the angular momentum evolution of the radiative interior. Both hydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic models were run. We…
We recently presented the first 3D numerical simulation of the solar interior for which tachocline confinement was achieved by a dynamo-generated magnetic field. In this followup study, we analyze the degree of confinement as the magnetic…
The surprising thinness of the solar tachocline is still not understood with certainty today. Among the numerous possible scenarios suggested to explain its radial confinement, one hypothesis is based on Maxwell stresses that are exerted by…
At the base of the Sun's convective zone, a narrow shear layer called the tachocline separates strong latitudinal differential rotation above from nearly rigid rotation in the radiative zone below. The observed thinness of the tachocline is…
The details of the dynamo process that is responsible for driving the solar magnetic activity cycle are still not fully understood. In particular, whilst differential rotation provides a plausible mechanism for the regeneration of the…
The questions of how strong magnetic fields can be stored in rotating stellar radiative zones without being subjected to pinch-type instabilities and how much radial mixing is produced if the fields are unstable are addressed. Linear…
The helioseismically observed solar tachocline is a thin internal boundary layer of shear that separates the rigidly-rotating solar radiative zone from the differentially-rotating convective zone and is believed to play a central role in…
We examine the MHD instabilities arising in the radiation zone of a differentially rotating star, in which a poloidal field of fossil origin is sheared into a toroidal field. We focus on the non-axisymmetric instability that affects the…
The leading theoretical paradigm for the Sun's magnetic cycle is an $\alpha\omega$-dynamo process, in which a combination of differential rotation and turbulent, helical flows produces a large-scale magnetic field that reverses every 11…
The question of the origin and evolution of magnetic fields in stars possessing a radiative envelope, like the A-type stars, is still regarded as a challenge for stellar physics. Those zones are likely to be differentially rotating, which…
Helioseismic measurements indicate that the solar tachocline is very thin, its full thickness not exceeding 4% of the solar radius. The mechanism that inhibits differential rotation to propagate from the convective zone to deeper into the…
Stability of toroidal magnetic field in a stellar radiation zone is considered for the cases of uniform and differential rotation. In the rigidly rotating radiative core shortly below the tachocline, the critical magnetic field for…