This review focuses on three topics relevant to naturally-occurring dynamos. The first considers how a common belief, that states of equipartition of magnetic and kinetic energy are preferred in nonrotating systems, is modified when Coriolis forces are influential, as in the Earth's core. The second reviews current difficulties faced by planetary and stellar dynamo theories, particularly in representing the sub-grid scales. The third discusses recent attempts to extract scaling laws from numerical integrations of the Boussinesq dynamo equations.

The electromagnetic interaction between Jupiter and Io has been studied extensively since the discovery of Io-controlled decametric radio emissions (DAMs). A variety of mechanisms for electromagnetic disturbances have been considered including a unipolar inductor, the excitation of large-amplitude Alfvén waves, the generation of electrostatic electric fields parallel to the ambient magnetic field, and etc. Recently, three auroral acceleration regions categorized by terrestrial physicists have been applied to the Jupiter-Io coupling system: the Alfvénic acceleration region is associated with bright emissions at Io's magnetic footprint, whereas the quasi-static system of anti-planetward and planetward currents set up at the inner and outer edges of the torus in the downstream region of Io's wake. This review paper summarizes the current understanding of the coupling mechanisms between Jupiter's ionosphere and the Io plasma torus, as well as the electron acceleration mechanism necessary to excite Io-associated emissions.

We calculate the relative magnitudes of the fluctuations in total synchrotron intensity in the interstellar medium, both from observations and from theory under various assumptions about the correlation or anticorrelation between cosmic rays and interstellar magnetic fields. The results are inconsistent with local energy equipartition between cosmic rays and magnetic fields. The distribution of cosmic rays must be rather uniform at scales of order 1 kpc, whereas interstellar magnetic fields vary at much smaller scales.

The Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory synthesis telescope (DRAO-ST) was used to produce a deep polarization mosaic at 1.4 GHz to a noise level of 45 microJy beam−1 for both Stokes Q and U at 1′ resolution. The DRAO deep field covers 8.6 sq. degrees in polarization centered on the ELAIS N1 field. We identified over 1700 total intensity (Stokes I) radio sources of which 197 are linearly polarized down to a flux density level of 203 microJy. The fractional polarization of faint polarized sources are flat down to a polarized flux density of about 4 mJy, at which point the numbers increase, until the counts drop for polarized flux densities below 1 mJy. These faint polarized radio sources are mostly AGNs with luminosities below the traditional FRI/FRII boundary. Follow-up observations with the VLA show that the origin of the polarization of the radio sources down to a polarized flux of 1 mJy comes from both the lobes and central region of these objects.

One of the first post-focus instruments of the new solar telescope GREGOR will be a Fabry-Perot spectrometer, which is an upgrade of the Göttingen Fabry-Perot interferometer at the Vacuum Tower Telescope (VTT) on Tenerife. This spectrometer is equipped with a full-Stokes polarimeter. The modulation is performed with two ferroelectric liquid crystals, one acting nominally as quarter-wave plate, and the other as half-wave plate. A modified Savart plate serves as polarimetric beam splitter. With the present liquid crystals, the optimum wavelength range of this polarimeter is between 580 and 660 nm. The spectro-polarimeter will benefit from the capabilities of the new telescope GREGOR which will provide a spatial resolution of about 0″.1 (75 km on the solar surface). Thus we will be able to investigate small magnetic features, and we will study their development with high cadence.

Magnetic fields are believed to play an important role in star formation. We observed M42 and Mon R2 massive star forming regions using the wide-field (8′ × 8′) near-infrared imaging polarimeter SIRPOL in South Africa. Magnetic fields are mapped on the basis of dichroic polarized light from hundreds of young stars embedded in the regions. We found “hourglass shaped” magnetic field structure toward OMC-1 region, which is very consistent with magnetic fields traced by using dust emission polarimetry at sub-mm to FIR wavelengths. In the Mon R2 region, we found “S-shaped” magnetic field structure across the massive protostar IRS 1 and IRS 2. We will present the results of comparison of magnetic fields at NIR with those at other wavelengths.

Direct measurements of magnetic fields in low-mass stars of spectral class M have become available during the last years. This contribution summarizes the data available on direct magnetic measurements in M dwarfs from Zeeman analysis in integrated and polarized light. Strong magnetic fields at kilo-Gauss strength are found throughout the whole M spectral range, and so far all field M dwarfs of spectral type M6 and later show strong magnetic fields. Zeeman Doppler images from polarized light find weaker fields, which may carry important information on magnetic field generation in partially and fully convective stars.

We find that the star formation is accelerated by the supersonic turbulence in the magnetically dominated (subcritical) clouds. We employ a fully three-dimensional simulation to study the role of magnetic fields and ion-neutral friction in regulating gravitationally driven fragmentation of molecular clouds. The time-scale of collapsing core formation in subcritical clouds is a few ×107 years when starting with small subsonic perturbations. However, it is shortened to approximately several ×106 years by the supersonic flows in the clouds. We confirm that higher-spacial resolution simulations also show the same result.

From spectropolarimetric data and spectral synthesis analysis, we report the serendipitous discovery of an unusually high lithium content field giant. HD 232862, classified as a G8II star, appears to be the first Lithium-rich field giant star hosting a surface magnetic field.

The widely used definition of a habitable zone (HZ) for planets as a circumstellar area, where the star's luminosity is sufficiently intense to maintain liquid water at the surface of a planet, is shown to be too simplified. The role of a host star's activity and the intrinsic magnetic field of a planet with respect to their influence on mass loss processes of close-in gas giants and a definition of a HZ for the terrestrial-type exoplanets are discussed. The stellar X-ray/EUV radiation and the stellar wind result in ionization, heating, chemical modification, and slow erosion of the planetary upper atmospheres throughout their lifetime. The closer the planet is to the star, the more efficient are these processes, and therefore, the more important becomes the magnetic protection of a planet as a potential habitat. Different ways for planetary magnetic dipole moment estimation, based on existing magnetic dynamo scaling laws as well as on the recent measurements of hot atomic hydrogen clouds around close-in ‘Hot Jupiters’ are considered, and the predictions of these estimations are compared to each other.

Mini-filaments are a small-scale phenomenon of the solar chromosphere, which frequently occur across the entire disk (see e.g. Wang, Li, Denker, et al. 2000). They share a variety of characteristics with their larger-scale cousins and may serve as a proxy for more complex systems. They play an important role in the energy and mass supply to the corona. In the case of small-scale eruptive filaments, only a single, small-scale loop system is involved. Furthermore, they are supported by simple magnetic field configurations (see Livi, Wang & Martin 1985), either magnetic bipoles or well-defined multipoles, easing their theoretical description. Since mini-filaments are small (just a few tens of seconds of arc) but highly dynamic (eruptions can occur within just a few minutes), they are an ideal target for high-resolution two-dimensional spectroscopy. We present a preliminary analysis of two-dimensional Hα spectroscopic data accompanied by broad-band speckle-restored images to demonstrate that chromospheric small-scale phenomena can serve as building blocks for our understanding of solar eruptive events such as filament/prominence eruptions and even coronal mass ejections (CMEs).

In this work, we present 3D MHD simulations of non-helical, forced turbulence, with an anisotropic thermal pressure with respect to the orientation of the local magnetic field. Such anisotropy arises when the plasma is weakly collisional, i.e., when the Larmor frequency is much greater than the ion-ion collision frequency. In this Kinetic MHD regime (KMHD), there are instabilities that give rise to fast growing magnetic fluctuations in the smallest scales. The plasma that fills the intergalactic and intracluster media has small density (n ~ 10−3cm−3), hence the effects of these instabilities could be important in the turbulent amplification of the magnetic fields there. In order to study the KMHD turbulence, we have performed 3D numerical simulations employing a godunov-MHD code (e.g., Kowal, Lazarian & Beresnyak 2007; Falceta-Gonçalves, Lazarian & Kowal 2008). The power spectrum of the velocity and magnetic fields were calculated for two cases: when there is a pre-existing mean magnetic field, and when there is only an initial weak magnetic field.

Applications of the Hanle effect have revealed the existence of vast amounts of “hidden“ magnetic flux in the solar photosphere, which remains invisible to the Zeeman effect due to cancellations inside each spatial resolution element of the opposite-polarity contributions from this small-scale, tangled field. The Hanle effect is a coherency phenomenon that represents the magnetic modification of the linearly polarized spectrum of the Sun that is formed by coherent scattering processes. This so-called “Second Solar Spectrum” is as richly structured as the ordinary intensity spectrum, but the spectral structures look completely different and have different physical origins. One of the new diagnostic uses of this novel spectrum is to explore the magnetic field in previously inaccessible parameter domains. The earlier view that most of the magnetic flux in the photosphere is in the form of intermittent kG flux tubes with tiny filling factors has thereby been shattered. The whole photospheric volume instead appears to be seething with intermediately strong fields, of order 100G, of significance for the overall energy balance of the solar atmosphere. According to the new paradigm the field behaves like a fractal with a high degree of self-similarity between the different scales. The magnetic structuring is expected to continue down to the 10m scale, 4 orders of magnitude below the current spatial resolution limit.

We present 2D local box simulations of near-surface radiative magneto-convection with prescribed magnetic flux, carried out with the MHD version of the CO5BOLD code for the Sun and a solar-like star with a metal-poor chemical composition (metal abundances reduced by a factor 100, [M/H] = −2). The resulting magneto-hydrodynamical models can be used to study the influence of the metallicity on the properties of magnetized stellar atmospheres. A preliminary analysis indicates that the horizontal magnetic field component tends to be significantly stronger in the optically thin layers of metal-poor stellar atmospheres.

Spectro-polarimetric observations in several spectral lines allow to determine the height variation of the magnetic field of a small sunspot throughout the solar photosphere. The full Stokes-vector is measured with high spatial resolution. From these data we derive the magnetic field vector. The magnetic field strength decreases with height everywhere in the spot, even in the outer penumbra where some other authors have reported the opposite. The precise value of this decrease depends on the exact position in the spot. Values vary between 0.5 and 2.2 G km−1 when they are determined from an iron and a silicon line in the near infrared. The magnetic field is less inclined in the higher layers where the silicon line is formed. Once the magnetic vector field is known, it is straight forward to determine current densities and helicities. Current densities exhibit a radial structure in the penumbra, although it is still difficult to correlate this with the structure seen in the intensity continuum. In spite of this, current densities have a potential to serve as diagnostic tools to understand the penumbra, at least with the spatial resolution of the upcoming telescopes. The mean infered helicity is negative, as expected for a spot in the northern hemisphere. Nevertheless, there are locations inside the spot with positive helicity.

Many, if not all, post AGB stellar systems swiftly transition from a spherical to a powerful aspherical pre-planetary nebula (pPNE) outflow phase before waning into a PNe. The pPNe outflows require engine rotational energy and a mechanism to extract this energy into collimated outflows. Just radiation and rotation are insufficient but a symbiosis between rotation, differential rotation and large scale magnetic fields remains promising. Present observational evidence for magnetic fields in evolved stars is suggestive of dynamically important magnetic fields, but both theory and observation are rife with research opportunity. I discuss how magnetohydrodynamic outflows might arise in pPNe and PNe and distinguish different between approaches that address shaping vs. those that address both launch and shaping. Scenarios involving dynamos in single stars, binary driven dynamos, or accretion engines cannot be ruled out. One appealing paradigm involves accretion onto the primary post-AGB white dwarf core from a low mass companion whose decaying accretion supply rate owers first the pPNe and then the lower luminosity PNe. Determining observational signatures of different MHD engines is a work in progress. Accretion disk theory and large scale dynamos pose many of their own fundamental challenges, some of which I discuss in a broader context.

Using special relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulation, the nonlinear dynamics of the magnetized outflow triggered on the magnetar surface is investigated. It is found that the strong shock propagates in the circumstellar medium in association with the expanding outflow. The shock velocity vsh depends on the strength of the dipole field anchored to the stellar surface Bdipole and is described by a simple scaling relation vsh ∝ Bdipole0.5. In addition, the outflow-driven shock can be accelerated self-similarly to the relativistic velocity when the density profile of the circumstellar medium is steeper than the critical density profile, that is α ≡ d logρ(r)/d log r ≲ αcrit = −5.0, where the density is set as a power law distribution with an index α and r is the cylindrical radius. Our results suggest that the relativistic outflow would be driven by the flaring activity in a circumstellar medium with a steep density profile.

Polarized light provides the most reliable source of information at our disposal for diagnosing the physical properties of astrophysical plasmas, including the magnetic fields of the solar atmosphere. The interaction between radiation and hydrogen plus free electrons through Rayleigh and Thomson scattering gives rise to the polarization of the stellar continuous spectrum, which is very sensitive to the medium's thermal and density structure. Anisotropic radiative pumping processes induce population imbalances and quantum coherences among the sublevels of degenerate energy levels (that is, atomic level polarization), which produce polarization in spectral lines without the need of a magnetic field. The Hanle effect caused by the presence of relatively weak magnetic fields modifies the atomic polarization of the upper and lower levels of the spectral lines under consideration, allowing us to detect magnetic fields to which the Zeeman effect is blind. After discussing the physical origin of the polarized radiation in stellar atmospheres, this paper highlights some recent developments in polarized radiation diagnostic methods and a few examples of their application in solar physics.

We study the impact on the stellar structure of a large-scale magnetic field in stellar radiation zones. The field is in magneto-hydrostatic (MHS) equilibrium and has a non force-free character, which allows us to study its influence both on the mechanical and and on the energetic balances. This approach is illustrated in the case of an Ap star where the magnetic field matches at the surface with an external potential one. Perturbations of the stellar structure are semi-analytically computed. The relative importance of the magnetic physical quantities is discussed and a hierarchy, aiming at distinguishing various refinement degrees in the implementation of a large-scale magnetic field in a stellar evolution code, is established. This treatment also allows us to deduce the gravitational multipolar moments and the change in effective temperature associated with the presence of a magnetic field.

The paper provides an overview on the results of the analyses of spectro-polarimetric observations of white dwarfs, subdwarfs, and central stars of planetary nebulae. It will also discuss the question of the origin of the magnetic fields in white dwarfs.