From Planetary to Stellar Dynamos - An investigation of the origin and the variability of stellar magnetic fields by direct numerical simulations

大多数低质量恒星都具有磁场。恒星磁场在场拓扑、场强和时间依赖性方面可能有很大差异。低质量恒星和行星的磁场是由其内部导电流体（或气体）运动产生的电流维持的。因此，恒星磁场的巨大变化很可能与恒星内部结构和内部动力学的差异有关。反之亦然，磁场对几乎所有演化状态的恒星动力学和恒星演化都有重大影响。拟议的工作将有助于解释恒星磁场的起源和多样性。发电机问题的复杂性以及广泛的空间和时间尺度使其在很长一段时间内无法直接进行数值处理。直到最近，计算机能力的增强才使得全球直接数值发电机模拟变得可行，特别是对于地球发电机。这些模型描述了对流驱动、导电且不可压缩的流体（地球外核中的液态铁）与磁场之间的复杂相互作用。然而，对于恒星发电机来说，不可压缩流体的简化假设不再有效，气体是可压缩的。最近开发的数值发电机代码考虑了可压缩性。我们将在不可压缩建模的众所周知的结果的指导下，对可压缩发电机模拟进行系统参数研究。通过这种方式，我们打算指出并解释可压缩模型和不可压缩模型在磁场几何形状、场强、时间依赖性、场生成机制以及差动旋转的强度和模式方面的系统差异。与这些方面的观测结果进行进一步比较将突出可压缩效应的相关性，并将提供对恒星发电机工作原理的深入了解。

Most low-mass stars possess a magnetic field. Stellar magnetic fields may differ a lot in their field topology, their field strength and their time dependence. Magnetic fields of low-mass stars and planets are maintained by currents resulting from the motion of a conducting fluid (or gas) in their interiors. Thus, the huge variability of stellar magnetic fields is most probably related to differences in the internal structure and interior dynamics of stars. Vice versa, magnetic fields have a major influence on stellar dynamics and stellar evolution in almost all evolutionary states. The proposed work will contribute to an explanation for the origin and the huge variety of stellar magnetic fields. The complexity of the dynamo problem together with a vast range of spatial and temporal scales rendered its direct numerical treatment impossible for long time. Only recently, increasing computer power made global, direct numerical dynamo simulations feasible, in particular for the geodynamo. These models describe the complicated interaction of a convection-driven, conducting and incompressible fluid (liquid iron in the Earth’s outer core) with a magnetic field. However, for stellar dynamos the simplifying assumption of an incompressible fluid is no longer valid, gas is compressible.A recently developed numerical dynamo code takes compressibility into account. We will carry out a systematic parameter study of compressible dynamo simulations guided by well-known results from incompressible modelling. In this way we intend to point out and to explain systematic differences between compressible and incompressible models with respect to the geometry of magnetic fields, the field strength, the time dependence, the mechanism of field generation and the strength and the pattern of differential rotation. A further comparison with observations along these lines will highlight the relevance of compressible effects and will offer insight into the working of stellar dynamos.