Magnetic Fields In Astrophysical Objects
arXiv:0808.1118 · doi:10.1098/rsta.2008.0173
Abstract
Magnetic fields are known to reside in many astrophysical objects and are now believed to be crucially important for the creation of phenomena on a wide variety of scales. However, the role of the magnetic field in the bodies that we observe has not always been clear. In certain situations, the importance of a magnetic field has been over looked on the grounds that the large-scale magnetic field was believed to be too weak to play and important role in the dynamics. In this article I discuss some of the recent developments concerning magnetic fields in stars, planets and accretion discs. I choose to emphasise some of the situations where it has been suggested that weak magnetic fields may play a more significant role than previously thought. At the end of the article I list some of the questions to be answered in the future.
11 pages, 5 figures, to appear in Phil. Trans. A
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Cited by in corpus (4)
- Interactions between magnetohydrodynamic shear instabilities and convective flows in the solar interior
- Shear instabilities in a fully compressible polytropic atmosphere
- QPO-Based Bayesian Constraints on Charged Particle Dynamics Around Magnetized Schwarzschild Black Holes
- Evolution and characteristics of forced shear flows in polytropic atmospheres: Large and small Péclet number regimes