We examine the angular momentum loss and associated rotational spin-down for magnetic hot stars with a line-driven stellar wind and a rotation-aligned dipole magnetic field. Our analysis here is based on our previous 2-D numerical MHD simulation study that examines the interplay among wind, field, and rotation as a function of two dimensionless parameters, W(=Vrot/Vorb) and ‘wind magnetic confinement’, η∗ defined below. We compare and contrast the 2-D, time variable angular momentum loss of this dipole model of a hot-star wind with the classical 1-D steady-state analysis by Weber and Davis (WD), who used an idealized monopole field to model the angular momentum loss in the solar wind. Despite the differences, we find that the total angular momentum loss averaged over both solid angle and time follows closely the general WD scaling ~ ṀΩR2A. The key distinction is that for a dipole field Alfvèn radius RA is significantly smaller than for the monopole field WD used in their analyses. This leads to a slower stellar spin-down for the dipole field with typical spin-down times of order 1 Myr for several known magnetic massive stars.

The role of magnetic fields for the formation of planets is reviewed. Protoplanetary disc turbulence driven by the magnetorotational instability has a huge influence on the early stages of planet formation. Small dust grains are transported both vertically and radially in the disc by turbulent diffusion, counteracting sedimentation to the mid-plane and transporting crystalline material from the hot inner disc to the outer parts. The conclusion from recent efforts to measure the turbulent diffusion coefficient of magnetorotational turbulence is that turbulent diffusion of small particles is much stronger than naively thought. Larger particles – pebbles, rocks and boulders – get trapped in long-lived high pressure regions that arise spontaneously at large scales in the turbulent flow. These gas high pressures, in geostrophic balance with a sub-Keplerian/super-Keplerian zonal flow envelope, are excited by radial fluctuations in the Maxwell stress. The coherence time of the Maxwell stress is only a few orbits, where as the correlation time of the pressure bumps is comparable to the turbulent mixing time-scale, many tens or orbits on scales much greater than one scale height. The particle overdensities contract under the combined gravity of all the particles and condense into gravitationally bound clusters of rocks and boulders. These planetesimals have masses comparable to the dwarf planet Ceres. I conclude with thoughts on future priorities in the field of planet formation in turbulent discs.

Some of the earliest polarimetric measurements made in astronomy were concerned with the polarization of the interstellar medium resulting from dust grains aligned in the Galactic magnetic field. More than 50 years later, polarimetry continues to be an important diagnostic of field structure on size scales ranging from planetary to galactic. The use of both linear and circular polarimetry at optical and infrared wavelengths can provide additional insights into the nature of dust particles, their alignment in magnetic fields and the field topology. Given the science benefits that polarimetry offers it is perhaps surprising that the continued existence of polarimetric facilities on current and next generation large telescopes needs to be ensured.

We present observational evidence that NGC 6543 produced a jet of cosmic rays that irradiated the Earth recorded as cosmogenic10Be found ice cores. This identification shows that the jet was accompanied by a magnetic field of sufficient strength to travel 220pc and retain evidence of the celestial coordinates of the source object.

We have several methods of measuring magnetic fields in the Milky Way. We can study optical polarization, radio polarization, rotation measures of pulsars and extragalactic radio sources as well as include Zeeman results. Each of the above mentioned methods was at times used to make a model of the magnetic fields of the Milky Way. However one or two of the data sets by themselves cannot tell us the whole story. Any model of the magnetic fields must be able to fit all the observational results. At the present time a lot of progress has been made. We have increased our data bases in most of the observational areas. However a robust model of the magnetic field of the Milky Way has not yet emerged. We must possibly wait to the era of SKA.

The problem of the global stability of rotating magnetized thin disks is considered. The appropriate boundary value problem (BVP) of the linearized MHD equations is solved by employing the WKB approximation to describe the dynamical development of an initial perturbation. The eigenfrequencies as well as eigenfunctions are explicitly obtained and are verified numerically. The importance of considering the initial value problem (IVP) as well as the question of global stability for finite systems is emphasized and discussed in detail. It is further shown that thin enough disks are stable (global stability) but as their thickness grows increasing number of unstable modes participate in the solution of the IVP. However it is demonstrated that due to the localization of the initial perturbation the growth time of the instability may be significantly longer than the calculated inverse growth rate of the individual unstable eigenfunctions.

Planetary nebulae (PNe) often show large departures from spherical symmetry. The origin and development of these asymmetries is not clearly understood. The most striking structures are the highly collimated jets that are already observed in a number of evolved stars before they enter the PN phase. The aim of this project is to observe the Zeeman splitting of the OH maser of the W43A star and determine the magnetic field strength in the low density region. The 1612 MHz OH masers of W43A were observed with MERLIN to measure the circular polarization due to the Zeeman splitting of 1612 OH masers in the envelope of the evolved star W43A. We measured the circular polarization of the strongest 1612 OH masers of W43A and found a magnetic field strength of ~100μG. The magnetic field measured at the location of W43A OH masers confirms that a large scale magnetic field is present in W43A, which likely plays a role in collimating the jet.

The solar tachocline is shown as hydrodynamically stable against nonaxisymmetric disturbances if it is true that no cos4θ term exists in its rotation law. We also show that the toroidal field of 200 Gauss amplitude which produces the tachocline in the magnetic theory of Rüdiger & Kitchatinov (1997) is stable against nonaxisymmetric MHD disturbances – but it becomes unstable for rotation periods slightly slower than 25 days. The instability of such weak fields lives from the high thermal diffusivity of stellar radiation zones compared with the magnetic diffusivity. The growth times, however, result as very long (of order of 105 rotation times). With estimations of the chemical mixing we find the maximal possible field amplitude to be ~500 Gauss in order to explain the observed lithium abundance of the Sun. Dynamos with such low field amplitudes should not be relevant for the solar activity cycle.

With nonlinear simulations of MHD Taylor-Couette flows it is shown that for the rotation-dominated magnetic instability the resulting eddy viscosity is only of the order of the molecular viscosity. The Schmidt number as the ratio of viscosity and chemical diffusion grows to values of ~20. For the majority of the stellar physics applications, the magnetic-dominated Tayler instability will be quenched by the stellar rotation.

We present observations of the high mass star forming region S88B taken with the VLA with the aim of measuring magnetic fields via the Zeeman effect. By observing thermal absorption lines of OH at 1665 and 1667 MHz, we obtain magnetic fields between 90 and 210 μG. We find these magnetic fields to be dynamically significant in this region.

We present results of three-dimensional, fully nonlinear MHD simulations of a large-scale magnetic field evolution in a barred galaxy. The model does not take into consideration the dynamo process. We find that the obtained magnetic field configurations are highly similar to the observed maps of the polarized intensity of barred galaxies, because the modeled vectors form coherent structures along the bar and spiral arms. Due to the dynamical influence of the bar the gas forms spiral waves which go radially outward. Each spiral arm forms the magnetic arm which stays much longer in the disk, than the gaseous spiral structure. Additionally the modeled total energy of magnetic field grows due to strong compression and shear of non-axisymmetrical bar flows and differential rotation, respectively.

One of the five key science projects for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is “The Origin and Evolution of Cosmic Magnetism”, in which radio polarimetry will be used to reveal what cosmic magnets look like and what role they have played in the evolving Universe. Many of the SKA prototypes now being built are also targeting magnetic fields and polarimetry as key science areas. Here I review the prospects for innovative new polarimetry and Faraday rotation experiments with forthcoming facilities such as ASKAP, LOFAR, the ATA, the EVLA, and ultimately the SKA. Sensitive wide-field polarisation surveys with these telescopes will provide a dramatic new view of magnetic fields in the Milky Way, in nearby galaxies and clusters, and in the high-redshift Universe.

I describe various stages of energy flow along an extragalactic jet, which subsequently evolves into an extended lobe which is visible in radio and X-rays. The sizes of the lobes vary from kpc scales to several megaparsec, so that the largest lobes are clearly injecting back hole energy into the IGM on scales comparable with a galaxy-galaxy separation. This is sometimes loosely referred to as Black hole-IGM “feedback”. My talk begins with a well-formed jet, and avoids the complex and unclarified physics at less than a few Schwarzschild radii that cause the initial launching the jet.

This presentation focuses on recent thinking and supercomputer simulations that appear to clarify the fundamental nature of these remarkable jets and lobes. The energy transport process appears to be electrodynamic, rather than particle beam–driven. A new observational verification of a 1018 Ampère current in an actual jet is concordant with the predictions and simulations of poynting flux-dominated electromagnetic jets. In this model the current is tightly related to the BH mass and angular energy.

The magneto-plasma properties of the lobes must obviously match to the jets which feed them. The “energy sink” phase is when BH energy is ultimately deposited on supra-galactic scales. The process from the BH to the lobe production happens with remarkable efficiency. The presence or absence of a galaxy cluster environment creates laboratory conditions that help to calibrate the energy flow paths, and the magnetic rigidity of these jet-lobe systems.

I conclude by describing recent, sensitive radio observations on supra-cluster scales that test for final magnetic energy deposition - the “sink” phase - into the intergalactic medium.

Massive stars are those stars with initial masses above about 8 times that of the sun, eventually leading to catastrophic explosions in the form of supernovae. These represent the most massive and luminous stellar component of the Universe, and are the crucibles in which the lion's share of the chemical elements are forged. These rapidly-evolving stars drive the chemistry, structure and evolution of galaxies, dominating the ecology of the Universe - not only as supernovae, but also during their entire lifetimes - with far-reaching consequences. Although the existence of magnetic fields in massive stars is no longer in question, our knowledge of the basic statistical properties of massive star magnetic fields is seriously incomplete. The Magnetism in Massive Stars (MiMeS) Project represents a comprehensive, multidisciplinary strategy by an international team of recognized researchers to address the “big questions” related to the complex and puzzling magnetism of massive stars. This paper present the first results of the MiMeS Large Program at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope.

The effects of turbulent pumping and η-quenching on Babcock-Leighton dynamo models are explored separately. Turbulent pumping seems to be important to solve several reported problems in these dynamo models related to the magnetic flux transport and to the parity. On the other hand, the suppression of the magnetic diffusivity, η, could help in the formation of long-lived, small and intense structures of toroidal magnetic field.

Our position inside the Galaxy requires all-sky surveys to reveal its large-scale properties. The zero-level calibration of all-sky surveys differs from standard ‘relative’ measurements, where a source is measured in respect to its surroundings. All-sky surveys aim to include emission structures of all angular scales exceeding their angular resolution including isotropic emission components. Synchrotron radiation is the dominating emission process in the Galaxy up to frequencies of a few GHz, where numerous ground based surveys of the total intensity up to 1.4 GHz exist. Its polarization properties were just recently mapped for the entire sky at 1.4 GHz. All-sky total intensity and linear polarization maps from WMAP for frequencies of 23 GHz and higher became available and complement existing sky maps. Galactic plane surveys have higher angular resolution using large single-dish or synthesis telescopes. Polarized diffuse emission shows structures with no relation to total intensity emission resulting from Faraday rotation effects in the interstellar medium. The interpretation of these polarization structures critically depends on a correct setting of the absolute zero-level in Stokes U and Q.

We conduct global galactic–scale magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) simulations of the cosmic–ray driven dynamo. We assume that exploding stars deposit small–scale, randomly oriented, dipolar magnetic fields into the differentially rotating ISM, together with a portion of cosmic rays, accelerated in supernova shocks. Our simulations are performed with the aid of a new parallel MHD code PIERNIK. We demonstrate that dipolar magnetic fields supplied on small SN–remnant scales, can be amplified exponentially by the CR–driven dynamo to the present equipartition values, and transformed simultaneously to large galactic–scales by an inverse cascade promoted by resistive processes.

We present first results of the magnetic survey of a sample of slow rotating giant stars for which an X-ray emission or variations of CaII H & K lines have been already detected.

Magnetic reconnection is thought to play an important role in liberating free energy stored in stressed magnetic fields. The consequences vary from undetectable nanoflares to huge flares, which have signatures over a wide wavelength range, depending on e.g. magnetic topology, free energy content, total flux, and magnetic flux density of the structures involved. Events of small energy release, which are thought to be the most numerous, are one of the key factors in the existence of a hot corona in the Sun and solar-like stars. The majority of large flares are ejective, i.e. involve the expulsion of large quantities of mass and magnetic field from the star. Since magnetic reconnection requires small length-scales, which are well below the spatial resolution limits of even the solar observations, we cannot directly observe magnetic reconnection happening. However, there is a plethora of indirect evidences from X-rays to radio observations of magnetic reconnection. I discuss key observational signatures of flares on the Sun and solar-paradigm stellar flares and describe models emphasizing synergy between observations and theory.

Zeeman-Doppler Imaging (ZDI) is a powerful inversion method to reconstruct stellar magnetic surface fields. The reconstruction process is usually solved by translating the inverse problem into a regularized least-square or optimization problem. In this contribution we will emphasize that ZDI is an inherent non-linear problem and the corresponding regularized optimization is, like many non-linear problems, potentially prone to local minima. We show how this problem will be exacerbated by using an inadequate forward model. To facilitate a more consistent full radiative transfer driven approach to ZDI we describe a two-stage strategy that consist of a principal component analysis (PCA) based line profile reconstruction and a fast approximate polarized radiative transfer method to synthesize local Stokes profiles. Moreover, we introduce a novel statistical inversion method based on artificial neural networks (ANN) which provide a fast calculation of a first guess model and allows to incorporate better physical constraints into the inversion process.

It is now well-known that the surface magnetic fields observed in cool, lower-mass stars on the main sequence (MS) are generated by dynamos operating in their convective envelopes. However, higher-mass stars (above 1.5 M⊙) pass their MS lives with a small convective core and a largely radiative envelope. Remarkably, notwithstanding the absence of energetically-important envelope convection, we observe very strong (from 300 G to 30 kG) and organised (mainly dipolar) magnetic fields in a few percent of the A and B-type stars on the MS, the origin of which is not well understood. In this poster we propose that these magnetic fields could be of fossil origin, and we present very strong observational results in favour of this proposal.