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Cha-MMS1 was mapped in the NH_3(1,1) line and the 1.2 cm continuum using the Australia Telescope Compact Array, ATCA. The angular resolution of the ATCA observations is 7'' (~ 1000 AU), and the velocity resolution is 50 m s^{-1}. The core was also mapped with the 64-m Parkes telesope in the NH_3(1,1) and (2,2) lines. Observations from Herschel Space Observatory and Spitzer Space telescope were used to help interpretation. A compact high column density core with a steep velocity gradient is detected in ammonia, with a fractional ammonia abundance compatible with determinations towards other dense cores. The direction of the velocity gradient agrees with previous single-dish observations, and the overall velocity distribution can be interpreted as rotation. The rotation axis goes through the position of a compact far-infrared source detected by Spitzer and Herschel. The specific angular momentum of the core is typical for protostellar envelopes. A string of 1.2 cm continuum sources is tentatively detected near the rotation axis. The ammonia spectra suggest the presence of warm embedded gas in its vicinity. An hourglass-shaped structure is seen in ammonia at the cloud's average LSR velocity, also aligned with the rotation axis. Although this structure resembles a pair of outflow lobes the ammonia spectra show no indications of shocked gas. The observed ammonia structure mainly delineates the inner envelope around the central source. The velocity gradient is likely to originate in the angular momentum of the contracting core, although influence of the outflow from the neighbouring young star IRS4 is possibly visible on one side of the core. The tentative continuum detection and the indications of a warm background component near the rotation axis suggest that the core contains a deeply embedded outflow which may have been missed in previous single-dish CO surveys owing to beam dilution., Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures. Submitted to Astronomy & Astrophysics

In astrophysics, turbulent diffusion is often used in place of microphysical diffusion to avoid resolving the small scales. However, we expect this approach to break down when time and length scales of the turbulence become comparable with other relevant time and length scales in the system. Turbulent diffusion has previously been applied to the magneto-rotational instability (MRI), but no quantitative comparison of growth rates at different turbulent intensities has been performed. We investigate to what extent turbulent diffusion can be used to model the effects of small-scale turbulence on the kinematic growth rates of the MRI, and how this depends on angular velocity and magnetic field strength. We use direct numerical simulations in three-dimensional shearing boxes with periodic boundary conditions in the spanwise direction and additional random plane-wave volume forcing to drive a turbulent flow at a given length scale. We estimate the turbulent diffusivity using a mixing length formula and compare with results obtained with the test-field method. It turns out that the concept of turbulent diffusion is remarkably accurate in describing the effect of turbulence on the growth rate of the MRI. No noticeable breakdown of turbulent diffusion has been found, even when time and length scales of the turbulence become comparable with those imposed by the MRI itself. On the other hand, quenching of turbulent magnetic diffusivity by the magnetic field is found to be absent. Turbulence reduces the growth rate of the MRI in a way that is the same as microphysical magnetic diffusion., Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Astronomy & Astrophysics

The dynamo processes in cool active stars generate complex magnetic fields responsible for prominent surface stellar activity and variability at different time scales. For a small number of cool stars magnetic field topologies were reconstructed from the time series of spectropolarimetric observations using the Zeeman Doppler imaging (ZDI) method. In this study we follow a long-term evolution of the magnetic field topology of the RS CVn binary star II Peg. We collected high-resolution circular polarisation observations of II Peg using the SOFIN spectropolarimeter at the Nordic Optical Telescope. These data cover 12 epochs spread over 7 years. A multi-line diagnostic technique in combination with a new ZDI code is applied to interpret these observations. Magnetic inversions using these data reveals evolving magnetic fields with typical local strengths of 0.5-1.0 kG and complex topologies. Despite using a self-consistent magnetic and temperature mapping technique, we do not find a clear correlation between magnetic and temperature features in the ZDI maps. Neither do we confirm the presence of persistent azimuthal field rings found in other RS CVn stars. Reconstruction of the magnetic field topology of II Peg reveals significant evolution of both the surface magnetic field structure and the extended magnetospheric field geometry. From 2004 to 2010 the total field energy drastically declined and the field became less axisymmetric. This also coincided with the transition from predominantly poloidal to mainly toroidal field topology. A qualitative comparison of the ZDI maps of II Peg with the prediction of dynamo theory suggests that the magnetic field in this star is produced mainly by the turbulent alpha^2 dynamo rather than the solar alphaOmega dynamo. Our results do not show a clear active longitude system, nor is there an evidence of the presence of an azimuthal dynamo wave., Comment: 20 pages, 10 figures; accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics

In this paper we first discuss observational evidence of longitudinal concentrations of magnetic activity in the Sun and rapidly rotating late-type stars with outer convective envelopes. Scenarios arising from the idea of rotationally influenced anisotropic convective turbulence being the key physical process generating these structures are then presented and discussed - such effects include the turbulent dynamo mechanism, negative effective magnetic pressure instability (NEMPI) and hydrodynamical vortex instability. Finally, we discuss non-axisymmetric stellar mean-field dynamo models, the results obtained with them, and compare those with the observational information gathered up so far. We also present results from a pure alpha-squared mean-field dynamo model, which show that time-dependent behavior of the dynamo solutions can occur both in the form of an azimuthal dynamo wave and/or oscillatory behavior related to the alternating energy levels of the active longitudes., Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, to appear in the IAUS 294 proceedings

We present preliminary results from high resolution magneto-convection simulations where we find the formation of flux concentrations from an initially uniform magnetic field. We compute the effective magnetic pressure but find that the concentrations appear also in places where it is positive. The structures appear in roughly ten convective turnover times and live close to a turbulent diffusion time. The time scales are compatible with the negative effective magnetic pressure instability (NEMPI), although structure formation is not restricted to regions where the effective magnetic pressure is negative., Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, to appear in IAUS 294 proceedings

Using simulations of slowly rotating stratified turbulence, we show that the alpha effect responsible for the generation of astrophysical magnetic fields is proportional to the logarithmic gradient of kinetic energy density rather than that of momentum, as was previously thought. This result is in agreement with a new analytic theory developed in this paper for large Reynolds numbers. Thus, the contribution of density stratification is less important than that of turbulent velocity. The alpha effect and other turbulent transport coefficients are determined by means of the test-field method. In addition to forced turbulence, we also investigate supernova-driven turbulence and stellar convection. In some cases (intermediate rotation rate for forced turbulence, convection with intermediate temperature stratification, and supernova-driven turbulence) we find that the contribution of density stratification might be even less important than suggested by the analytic theory., Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, revised version, Astrophys. J., in press

The origin and structure of the magnetic fields in the interstellar medium of spiral galaxies is investigated with 3D, non-ideal, compressible MHD simulations, including stratification in the galactic gravity field, differential rotation and radiative cooling. A rectangular domain, 1x1x2 kpc^{3} in size, spans both sides of the galactic mid-plane. Supernova explosions drive transonic turbulence. A seed magnetic field grows exponentially to reach a statistically steady state within 1.6 Gyr. Following Germano (1992) we use volume averaging with a Gaussian kernel to separate magnetic field into a mean field and fluctuations. Such averaging does not satisfy all Reynolds rules, yet allows a formulation of mean-field theory. The mean field thus obtained varies in both space and time. Growth rates differ for the mean-field and fluctuating field and there is clear scale separation between the two elements, whose integral scales are about 0.7 kpc and 0.3 kpc, respectively., Comment: 5 pages, 10 figures, submitted to Monthly Notices Letters

We simulate the multi-phase interstellar medium randomly heated and stirred by supernovae, with gravity, differential rotation and other parameters of the solar neighbourhood. Here we describe in detail both numerical and physical aspects of the model, including injection of thermal and kinetic energy by SN explosions, radiative cooling, photoelectric heating and various transport processes. With 3D domain extending 1 kpc^2 horizontally and 2 kpc vertically, the model routinely spans gas number densities 10^-5 - 10^2 cm^-3, temperatures 10-10^8 K, local velocities up to 10^3 km s^-1 (with Mach number up to 25). The thermal structure of the modelled ISM is classified by inspection of the joint probability density of the gas number density and temperature. We confirm that most of the complexity can be captured in terms of just three phases, separated by temperature borderlines at about 10^3 K and 5x10^5 K. The probability distribution of gas density within each phase is approximately lognormal. We clarify the connection between the fractional volume of a phase and its various proxies, and derive an exact relation between the fractional volume and the filling factors defined in terms of the volume and probabilistic averages. These results are discussed in both observational and computational contexts. The correlation scale of the random flows is calculated from the velocity autocorrelation function; it is of order 100 pc and tends to grow with distance from the mid-plane. We use two distinct parameterizations of radiative cooling to show that the multi-phase structure of the gas is robust, as it does not depend significantly on this choice., Comment: 28 pages, 22 figures and 8 tables

Direct numerical simulations of isotropically forced homogeneous stationary turbulence with an imposed passive scalar concentration gradient are compared with an analytical closure model which provides evolution equations for the mean passive scalar flux and variance. Triple correlations of fluctuations appearing in these equations are described in terms of relaxation terms proportional to the quadratic correlations. Three methods are used to extract the relaxation timescales tau_i from direct numerical simulations. Firstly, we insert the closure ansatz into our equations, assume stationarity, and solve for tau_i. Secondly, we use only the closure ansatz itself and obtain tau_i from the ratio of quadratic and triple correlations. Thirdly we remove the imposed passive scalar gradient and fit an exponential decay law to the solution. We vary the Reynolds (Re) and P\'eclet (Pe) numbers while keeping their ratio at unity and the degree of scale separation and find for large Re fair correspondence between the different methods. The ratio of the turbulent relaxation time of passive scalar flux to the turnover time of turbulent eddies is of the order of three, which is in remarkable agreement with earlier work. Finally we make an effort to extract the relaxation timescales relevant for the viscous and diffusive effects. We find two regimes which are valid for small and large Re, respectively, but the dependence of the parameters on scale separation suggests that they are not universal., Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Physica Scripta

We present results from compressible Cartesian convection simulations with and without imposed shear. In the former case the dynamo is expected to be of $\alpha^2\varOmega$ type which is generally expected to be relevant for the Sun, whereas the latter case refers to $\alpha^2$ dynamos which are more likely to occur in more rapidly rotating stars whose differential rotation is small. We perform a parameter study where the shear flow and the rotational influence are varied to probe the relative importance of both types of dynamos. Oscillatory solutions are preferred both in the kinematic and saturated regimes when the negative ratio of shear to rotation rates, $q\equiv -S/\varOmega$, is between 1.5 and 2, i.e., when shear and rotation are of comparable strengths. Other regions of oscillatory solutions are found with small values of $q$, i.e., when shear is weak in comparison to rotation, and in the regime of large negative $q$s, when shear is very strong in comparison to rotation. However, exceptions to these rules also appear so that for a given ratio of shear to rotation, solutions are non-oscillatory for small and large shear, but oscillatory in the intermediate range. Changing the boundary conditions from vertical field to perfect conductor ones changes the dynamo mode from oscillatory to quasi-steady. Furthermore, in many cases an oscillatory solution exists only in the kinematic regime whereas in the nonlinear stage the mean fields are stationary. However, the cases with rotation and no shear are always oscillatory in the parameter range studied here and the dynamo mode does not depend on the magnetic boundary conditions. The strengths of total and large-scale components of the magnetic field in the saturated state, however, are sensitive to the chosen boundary conditions., Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, version published in GAFD

We determine the timescales associated with turbulent diffusion and isotropization in closure models using anisotropically forced and freely decaying turbulence simulations and to study the applicability of these models. We compare the results from anisotropically forced three-dimensional numerical simulations with the predictions of the closure models and obtain the turbulent timescales mentioned above as functions of the Reynolds number. In a second set of simulations, turning the forcing off enables us to study the validity of the closures in freely decaying turbulence. Both types of experiments suggest that the timescale of turbulent diffusion converges to a constant value at higher Reynolds numbers. Furthermore, the relative importance of isotropization is found to be about 2.5 times larger at higher Reynolds numbers than in the more viscous regime., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Astronomische Nachrichten

We report on simulations of mildly turbulent convection in spherical wedge geometry with varying density stratification. We vary the density contrast within the convection zone by a factor of 20 and study the influence of rotation on the solutions. We demonstrate that the size of convective cells decreases and the anisotropy of turbulence increases as the stratification is increased. Differential rotation is found to change from anti-solar (slow equator) to solar-like (fast equator) at roughly the same Coriolis number for all stratifications. The largest stratification runs, however, are sensitive to changes of the Reynolds number. Evidence for a near-surface shear layer is found in runs with strong stratification and large Reynolds numbers., Comment: 7 pages, 9 figures, published version

The light curves of variable stars are commonly described using simple trigonometric models, that make use of the assumption that the model parameters are constant in time. This assumption, however, is often violated, and consequently, time series models with components that vary slowly in time are of great interest. In this paper we introduce a class of data analysis and visualization methods which can be applied in many different contexts of variable star research, for example spotted stars, variables showing the Blazhko effect, and the spin-down of rapid rotators. The methods proposed are of explorative type, and can be of significant aid when performing a more thorough data analysis and interpretation with a more conventional method.Our methods are based on a straightforward decomposition of the input time series into a fast "clocking" periodicity and smooth modulating curves. The fast frequency, referred to as the carrier frequency, can be obtained from earlier observations (for instance in the case of photometric data the period can be obtained from independently measured radial velocities), postulated using some simple physical principles (Keplerian rotation laws in accretion disks), or estimated from the data as a certain mean frequency. The smooth modulating curves are described by trigonometric polynomials or splines. The data approximation procedures are based on standard computational packages implementing simple or constrained least-squares fit-type algorithms., Comment: 14 pages, 23 figures, submitted to Astronomy and Astrophysics

We study the generation of large-scale vortices in rotating turbulent convection by means of Cartesian direct numerical simulations. We find that for sufficiently rapid rotation, cyclonic structures on a scale large in comparison to that of the convective eddies, emerge, provided that the fluid Reynolds number exceeds a critical value. For slower rotation, cool cyclonic vortices are preferred, whereas for rapid rotation, warm anti-cyclonic vortices are favored. In some runs in the intermediate regime both types of cyclones co-exist for thousands of convective turnover times. The temperature contrast between the vortices and the surrounding atmosphere is of the order of five per cent. We relate the simulation results to observations of rapidly rotating late-type stars that are known to exhibit large high-latitude spots from Doppler imaging. In many cases, cool spots are accompanied with spotted regions with temperatures higher than the average. In this paper, we investigate a scenario according to which the spots observed in the temperature maps could have a non-magnetic origin due to large-scale vortices in the convection zones of the stars., Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, version published in ApJ. Version with higher resolution figures can be found at http://www.helsinki.fi/~kapyla/publ.html

We investigate the effects of weakly and strongly stratified turbulent convection on the mean effective Lorentz force, and especially on the mean effective magnetic pressure. Earlier studies with isotropically forced non-stratified and stratified turbulence have shown that the contribution of the turbulence to the mean magnetic pressure is negative for mean horizontal magnetic fields that are smaller than the equipartition strength, so that the effective mean magnetic pressure that takes into account the turbulence effects, can be negative. Compared with earlier cases of forced turbulence with an isothermal equation of state, we find that the turbulence effect is similar to or even stronger in the present case of turbulent convection. This is argued to be due to the anisotropy of turbulence in the vertical direction. Another important difference compared with earlier studies is the presence of an evolution equation for the specific entropy. Mean-field modelling with entropy evolution indicates that the negative effective magnetic pressure can still lead to a large-scale instability which forms local flux concentrations, even though the specific entropy evolution tends to have a stabilizing effect when applied to a stably stratified (e.g., isothermal) layer. It is argued that this large-scale instability could be important for the formation of solar large-scale magnetic structures such as active regions., Comment: 10 pages, 11 figures, MNRAS, published version

Aims: In this study, we aim at investigating the properties of the active longitude system of the young solar analogue HD 116956 in detail, especially concentrating on determining the rotation period of the spot-generating mechanism with respect to the photometric rotation period of the star itself. Because the nonparametric approach, like the Kuiper method, can only give the period of active longitudes, we formulate a new method that can determine the parameters the active longitude distribution uniquely. Methods: For this purpose, we have developed an analysis method, based on Bayesian statistics using Markov chain Monte Carlo, presented in this manuscript. One of the advantages of this method is that an estimate of the active longitude system rotation period, as well as the parameters of the shape and location of the active longitudes together with their respective error estimates. This allows us to compare the active longitude and mean photospheric rotation periods of the star. Results: Our analysis confirms previous results of the object having two stable active longitudes with a phase difference of Delta phi = 0.5, the other longitude having dominated over the other one during almost the entire span of the time series. Our method gives the rotation period of the active longitude system P_al = 7.8412 +- 0.00002 d, which is significantly different from the mean photospheric rotation period of the star P_rot = 7.817 +- 0.003 d. Conclusions: Our analysis indicates that the spot-generating mechanism, manifesting itself as a system of two active longitudes, is lagging behind the overall rotation of the star. This behaviour may be interpreted as a nonaxisymmetric dynamo wave propagating in the rotational reference frame of the stellar surface., Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, 4 tables

(abridged) Context. Turbulent fluxes of angular momentum and heat due to rotationally affected convection play a key role in determining differential rotation of stars. Here we perform a systematic comparison between Cartesian and spherical geometries as a function of the rotation rate. Aims. We extend the earlier studies by using spherical wedges to obtain turbulent angular momentum and heat transport as functions of the rotation rate from stratified convection. We compare results from spherical and Cartesian models in the same parameter regime. In particular, we want to clarify whether the sharp equatorial profile of the horizontal Reynolds stress found in earlier Cartesian models is reproduced in spherical models. Methods. We employ direct numerical simulations of turbulent convection. In order to reach as high spatial resolution as possible in the spherical runs, we model only parts of the latitude and longitude. The rotational influence, measured by the Coriolis number, is varied from zero to roughly seven, which is the regime that is likely to be realised in the solar convection zone. Cartesian simulations are performed in overlapping parameter regimes. Results. For slow rotation we find that the radial and latitudinal turbulent angular momentum fluxes are directed inward and equatorward, respectively. In the rapid rotation regime the radial flux changes sign in contradiction with theory. The latitudinal flux remains mostly equatorward and develops a maximum close to the equator. In Cartesian simulations this peak can be explained by the strong `banana cells'. The latitudinal heat flux is mostly equatorward for slow rotation but changes sign for rapid rotation. The rotation profiles vary from anti-solar (slow equator) for slow and intermediate rotation to solar-like (fast equator) for rapid rotation. The solar-like profiles are dominated by the Taylor--Proudman balance., Comment: 17 pages, 19 figures, updated to match the published version. Version with higher resolution figures can be found at http://www.helsinki.fi/~kapyla/publ.html