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Modeling sunspot and starspot decay by turbulent erosion

Abstract
Disintegration of sunspots (and starspots) by fluxtube erosion, originally proposed by Simon and Leighton, is considered. A moving boundary problem is formulated for a nonlinear diffusion equation that describes the sunspot magnetic field profile. Explicit expressions for the sunspot decay rate and lifetime by turbulent erosion are derived analytically and verified numerically. A parabolic decay law for the sunspot area is obtained. For moderate sunspot magnetic field strengths, the predicted decay rate agrees with the results obtained by Petrovay and Moreno-Insertis. The new analytical and numerical solutions significantly improve the quantitative description of sunspot and starspot decay by turbulent erosion.
Type
Journal Article
Type of thesis
Series
Citation
Litvinenko, Y. E., & Wheatland, M. S. (2015). Modeling sunspot and starspot decay by turbulent erosion. Astrophysical Journal, 800(2). http://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/800/2/130
Date
2015-02-20
Publisher
The American Astronomical Society
Degree
Supervisors
Rights
© 2015 The American Astronomical Society