Monday, August 24, 2020 at 12:40

https://cuboulder.zoom.us/j/92195829913

Ben Brown, CU Boulder

"The Sun, the stars, and Jupiter aswirl"

Abstract:

Fluid dynamics pervades the physics of stellar interiors and planetary atmospheres. Our Sun and Jupiter are at first glance very different from each other, and even more different from the other stars. However, by studying fundamental processes in one system we sometimes learn surprising things about the others. In this talk, I will summarize advances made at CU in studying these objects. I will start with fundamental studies of the fluid dynamics within rotating stratified systems motivated by outstanding problems in Solar convection. I will build to global- scale models of magnetic dynamos in fully-convective M-dwarf stars. There we find surprising single-hemisphere dynamos, with implications for what we observe in these highly-magnetized objects. I end by returning to our Solar System with novel simulations of convection in Jupiter, informed by understandings of radiative transfer from stellar interiors, which raise the possibility of unexpected high-Mach number convection in gas giants. This interdisciplinary work requires a flexible framework to build those models and a team of experts to develop it.

Our tool is the Dedalus framework, which we have developed over the past nine years. During that process, we have learned surprising lessons about improving model performance. I will share some of those lessons and discuss what we have learned about the power of interdisciplinary teams when modelling astrophysical systems. At the end, I will chart the pathways I am now embarking on and the places our theoretical models are contributing important insights into current and future missions and the observations they provide.

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