Chairs
María Jesús Martínez González (Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias)
Stephen Marsden (Centre for Astronomy, James Cook University)
Scientific motivation
Astrophysical plasmas and magnetic fields are inextricably coupled to each other. But magnetic fields are elusive; they cannot be fully characterized with standard (spectroscopic) observational techniques. Fortunately, polarisation, the third fundamental property of light, encodes all the quantitative information on the magnetism of the objects we observe. This splinter session will bring together the solar and stellar spectropolarimetric communities to discuss some of the fundamental unsolved questions of solar and stellar magnetism and the future of spectropolarimetric observations.
Many questions on stellar magnetism are linked to solar physics, with many of the lessons learnt from the Sun being able to be applied to the stars. Conversly, there are many things we can learn from the stars that can be applied to solar physics: How did the Sun's cyclic dynamo develop? Does the solar magnetic dynamo apply to all types of stars? Can we use the variety of stars to predict if (and when) the Sun will go into another Maunder minimum?
The main interest of the solar-stellar connection is to build the bridge between the detailed knowledge gathered from solar observations and modelling, and the diversity of the stars. The observation of stars similar to the Sun brings the opportunity to investigate how stellar magnetic activity phenomena vary over a variety of stellar parameters (age, mass, rotation rate, binarity...). These premises are reflected in the recently started COST action named “Spectropolarimetry as a tool to study the solar system and beyond”. This splinter session on solar and stellar spectropolarimetry is timely because other international efforts are currently in process like MAPP (running on the CFHT for some years) and Bcool. All these projects are looking to expand their collaboration base. A splinter session on solar and stellar spectropolarimetry at Cool Stars 17 will provide an excellent vehicle to promote collaboration between solar and stellar physics.
Outstanding questions/problems for discussion
- Questions/comments to the speakers
- Inversion techniques: what do we have to improve? New methods and/or new physics?
- Observations: near-infrared (SPIROU and MIRADAS). What do we expect?
- Extrasolar planets of cool stars and stellar weather. Is this the next step in spectropolarimetry?
- Future observatories and collaborations. What does the future hold for spectropolarimetry?
- Collaboration. How can we bring the communities closer together?
News :
The final program has been published. Contact us in marian@iac.es or Stephen.Marsden@jcu.edu.au for any detail.