Progress in Large Scale Dynamo Theory and Lessons for Accretion Disk Theory

Abstract:  Large scale magnetic fields are observed  in stars and galaxies and are also dynamically essential in mediating astrophysical coronae and jets.  Understanding their origin has been a long-standing pursuit of large scale dynamo (LSD) theory.  But 20th century “textbook” LSD theory offers no prediction of the saturated field strength, a shortcoming that persisted for 50+ years.  This has changed in the 21st century, aided by a symbiosis between theory and numerical simulation. There is now an LSD theory that predicts saturation in agreement with numerical experiments. I will discuss these modern developments and some connections to accretion disk theory, which  has not yet incurred the same success.

http://www.pas.rochester.edu/~blackman/