Proposals for Bachelor and Master's Thesis projects
The main areas of my research, and hence of the projects I'll supervise,
are numerical astrophysics and simulations of astrophysical
magneto-hydrodynamics (MHD). Here are a couple of examples of
ready-to-launch projects:
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So far models of magnetic fields and dynamos in stars have been very crude.
For example people often model just a small section of a star, and look
at the behavior of magnetic fields in an idealized manner. Especially
for stars that have huge convection cells at the surface, the magnetic field
may also be more global than can be rendered in an idealized simulation.
First steps have already been taken to model cool giant stars (such as
the red-giant "Betelgeuse") in a holistic way, as a "star-in-a-box":
In this project the Master's student makes model(s) of convective
stars including the magnetic field.
Material containing an initial simplified study, and a well-documented
(ready to run)
computer code are available. The project will with great likelihood result
in a publication in a peer-reviewed international journal.
Material: first ideas,
computer code,
see also Aktuel Astronomi (Vinter 2003), p.36-39, for an
introduction in Danish.
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Like the Sun, the stars and the Earth, Jupiter also generates it's own
magnetic field in an enigmatic dynamo process: It is this dynamo that
is responsible for the magnetic field that interacts with the magnetic
field in the solar wind, thereby creating the auroral displays (left
picture above) similar to the ones we see on Earth. But... Is Jupiter's
dynamo similar to Earth's (the geodynamo) or to the solar and stellar
dynamos? A possible Master's
Thesis project could study this so-called Jovian dynamo by means
of numerical simulation to an extend never attempted before: The whole
planet can be modeled in a large-scale numerical simulation, making it
possible to study the dynamics of the field and flows on a global scale.
Material:
computer
code
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Many cool late-type dwarf stars (i.e. stars like the Sun, or cooler)
are thought to have magnetic coronae e.g. because of their observed X-ray
activity. In some cases the inferred magnetic fields have filling factors
of 70% of the surface, which may be compared to the 1% filling factor of
the Sun at solar maximum. In addition some M-type (red) dwarf stars
are rotating faster than the Sun and the magnetic field strength on their
surfaces are higher than on the Sun: Do these stars have dynamos that
are different from the solar dynamo? Do they have solar-like coronae
with magnetic loops, like the Sun, or does the observed activity have
a different explanation? This project could aim at modeling an M-dwarf
corona, in a way similar to the recent successful models of the solar
corona (and coronal heating), by one of the Ph.D. students of our
group (by using the same computer code).
Material:
setup for the Sun
(by Boris Gudiksen),
M-dwarf dynamo?
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Use the publically available data from the SST to unravel the solar dynamo; what
are the structure of emerging active regions? Do magnetic flux ropes really exist; do
they look anything like those we assume in our numerical computer simulations?
Material:
The Swedish Solar Telescope,
Dorch, S.B.F. 1998, Ph.D. Thesis
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A number of additional masters projects and colloquia subjects are possible,
in connection with on-going projects in the
Numerical Astrophysics
group. For more detailed information, contact
one
of us for a discussion.
May 2012
dorch@astro.ku.dk