Issue |
A&A
Volume 645, January 2021
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A141 | |
Number of page(s) | 12 | |
Section | The Sun and the Heliosphere | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202038603 | |
Published online | 26 January 2021 |
Physically motivated heat-conduction treatment in simulations of solar-like stars: effects on dynamo transitions
1
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università della Calabria, 87036 Rende, CS, Italy
2
Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Justus-von-Liebig-Weg 3, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
e-mail: viviani@mps.mpg.de
3
Department of Computer Science, Aalto University, PO Box 15400, 00076 Aalto, Finland
4
Nordita, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Stockholm University, Roslagstullsbacken 23, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden
Received:
8
June
2020
Accepted:
14
November
2020
Context. Results from global magnetoconvection simulations of solar-like stars are at odds with observations in many respects: simulations show a surplus of energy in the kinetic power spectrum at large scales; anti-solar differential rotation profiles with accelerated poles, and a slow equator for the solar rotation rate; and a transition from axi- to nonaxisymmetric dynamos at a much lower rotation rate than what is observed. Even though the simulations reproduce the observed active longitudes in fast rotators, their motion in the rotational frame (the so-called azimuthal dynamo wave, ADW) is retrograde, in contrast to the prevalent prograde motion in observations.
Aims. We study the effect of a more realistic treatment of heat conductivity in alleviating the discrepancies between observations and simulations.
Methods. We use physically motivated heat conduction by applying Kramers opacity law to a semi-global spherical setup that describes the convective envelopes of solar-like stars, instead of a prescribed heat conduction profile from mixing-length arguments.
Results. We find that some aspects of the results now better correspond to observations: the axi- to nonaxisymmetric transition point is shifted towards higher rotation rates. We also find a change in the propagation direction of ADWs that means that prograde waves are also now found. However, the transition from an anti-solar to solar-like rotation profile is also shifted towards higher rotation rates, leaving the models in an even more unrealistic regime.
Conclusions. Although Kramers-based heat conduction does not help in reproducing the solar rotation profile, it does help in the faster rotation regime, where the dynamo solutions now better match the observations.
Key words: magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) / convection / turbulence / Sun: activity / dynamo
© M. Viviani and M. J. Käpylä 2021
Open Access article, published by EDP Sciences, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Open Access funding provided by Max Planck Society.
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.