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1. The Fine‐Scale Magnetic History of the Allende Meteorite: Implications for the Structure of the Solar Nebula

   https://doi.org/10.1029/2021AV000486  

   Fu, Roger R.; Volk, Michael W. R.; Bilardello, Dario; Libourel, Guy; Lesur, Geoffroy R. J.; Ben Dor, Oren (August 2021, AGU Advances)

   Abstract Magnetic fields in the early solar system may have driven the inward accretion of the protoplanetary disk (PPD) and generated instabilities that led to the formation of planets and ring and gap structures. The Allende carbonaceous chondrite meteorite records a strong early solar system magnetic field that has been interpreted to have a PPD, dynamo, or impact‐generated origin. Using high‐resolution magnetic field imaging to isolate the magnetization of individual grain assemblages, we find that only Fe‐sulfides carry a coherent magnetization. Combined with rock magnetic analyses, we conclude that Allende carries a magnetization acquired during parent body chemical alteration at ~3.0–4.2 My after calcium aluminum‐rich inclusions in an >40 µT magnetic field. This early age strongly favors a magnetic field of nebular origin instead of dynamo or solar wind alternatives. When compared to other paleomagnetic data from meteorites, this strong intensity supports a central role for magnetic instabilities in disk accretion and the presence of temporal variations or spatial heterogeneities in the disk, such as ring and gap structures. 

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2. On large-scale dynamos with stable stratification and the application to stellar radiative zones

   https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac2676  

   Skoutnev, V; Squire, J; Bhattacharjee, A (October 2022, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society)

   Abstract Our understanding of large-scale magnetic fields in stellar radiative zones remains fragmented and incomplete. Such magnetic fields, which must be produced by some form of dynamo mechanism, are thought to dominate angular-momentum transport, making them crucial to stellar evolution. A major difficulty is the effect of stable stratification, which generally suppresses dynamo action. We explore the effects of stable stratification on mean-field dynamo theory with a particular focus on a non-helical large-scale dynamo (LSD) mechanism known as the magnetic shear-current effect. We find that the mechanism is robust to increasing stable stratification as long as the original requirements for its operation are met: a source of shear and non-helical magnetic fluctuations (e.g. from a small-scale dynamo). Both are plausibly sourced in the presence of differential rotation. Our idealized direct numerical simulations, supported by mean-field theory, demonstrate the generation of near equipartition large-scale toroidal fields. Additionally, a scan over magnetic Reynolds number shows no change in the growth or saturation of the LSD, providing good numerical evidence of a dynamo mechanism resilient to catastrophic quenching, which has been an issue for helical dynamos. These properties – the absence of catastrophic quenching and robustness to stable stratification – make the mechanism a plausible candidate for generating in situ large-scale magnetic fields in stellar radiative zones. 

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3. Interchange reconnection as the source of the fast solar wind within coronal holes

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05955-3  

   Bale, S. D.; Drake, J. F.; McManus, M. D.; Desai, M. I.; Badman, S. T.; Larson, D. E.; Swisdak, M.; Horbury, T. S.; Raouafi, N. E.; Phan, T.; et al (June 2023, Nature)

   Abstract The fast solar wind that fills the heliosphere originates from deep within regions of open magnetic field on the Sun called ‘coronal holes’. The energy source responsible for accelerating the plasma is widely debated; however, there is evidence that it is ultimately magnetic in nature, with candidate mechanisms including wave heating 1,2 and interchange reconnection 3–5 . The coronal magnetic field near the solar surface is structured on scales associated with ‘supergranulation’ convection cells, whereby descending flows create intense fields. The energy density in these ‘network’ magnetic field bundles is a candidate energy source for the wind. Here we report measurements of fast solar wind streams from the Parker Solar Probe (PSP) spacecraft 6 that provide strong evidence for the interchange reconnection mechanism. We show that the supergranulation structure at the coronal base remains imprinted in the near-Sun solar wind, resulting in asymmetric patches of magnetic ‘switchbacks’ 7,8 and bursty wind streams with power-law-like energetic ion spectra to beyond 100 keV. Computer simulations of interchange reconnection support key features of the observations, including the ion spectra. Important characteristics of interchange reconnection in the low corona are inferred from the data, including that the reconnection is collisionless and that the energy release rate is sufficient to power the fast wind. In this scenario, magnetic reconnection is continuous and the wind is driven by both the resulting plasma pressure and the radial Alfvénic flow bursts. 

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4. Simulating Compressive Stream Interaction Regions during Parker Solar Probe’s First Perihelion Using Stream-aligned Magnetohydrodynamics

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad21fd  

   Wraback, E. M.; Hoffmann, A. P.; Manchester, IV, W. B.; Sokolov, I. V.; van der Holst, B.; Carpenter, D. (February 2024, The Astrophysical Journal)

   Abstract We used the stream-aligned magnetohydrodynamics (SA-MHD) model to simulate Carrington rotation 2210, which contains Parker Solar Probe’s (PSP) first perihelion at 36.5R_⊙on 2018 November 6, to provide context to the in situ PSP observations by FIELDS and SWEAP. The SA-MHD model aligns the magnetic field with the velocity vector at each point, thereby allowing for clear connectivity between the spacecraft and the source regions on the Sun, without unphysical magnetic field structures. During this Carrington rotation, two stream interaction regions (SIRs) form, due to the deep solar minimum. We include the energy partitioning of the parallel and perpendicular ions and the isotropic electrons to investigate the temperature anisotropy through the compression regions to better understand the wave energy amplification and proton thermal energy partitioning in a global context. Overall, we found good agreement in all in situ plasma parameters between the SA-MHD results and the observations at PSP, STEREO-A, and Earth, including at PSP’s perihelion and through the compression region of the SIRs. In the typical solar wind, the parallel proton temperature is preferentially heated, except in the SIR, where there is an enhancement in the perpendicular proton temperature. This is further showcased in the ion cyclotron relaxation time, which shows a distinct decrease through the SIR compression regions. This work demonstrates the success of the Alfvén wave turbulence theory for predicting interplanetary magnetic turbulence levels, while self-consistently reproducing solar wind speeds, densities, and overall temperatures, including at small heliocentric distances and through SIR compression regions. 

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5. Absence of a long-lived lunar paleomagnetosphere

   https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abi7647  

   Tarduno, John A.; Cottrell, Rory D.; Lawrence, Kristin; Bono, Richard K.; Huang, Wentao; Johnson, Catherine L.; Blackman, Eric G.; Smirnov, Aleksey V.; Nakajima, Miki; Neal, Clive R.; et al (August 2021, Science Advances)

   Determining the presence or absence of a past long-lived lunar magnetic field is crucial for understanding how the Moon’s interior and surface evolved. Here, we show that Apollo impact glass associated with a young 2 million–year–old crater records a strong Earth-like magnetization, providing evidence that impacts can impart intense signals to samples recovered from the Moon and other planetary bodies. Moreover, we show that silicate crystals bearing magnetic inclusions from Apollo samples formed at ∼3.9, 3.6, 3.3, and 3.2 billion years ago are capable of recording strong core dynamo–like fields but do not. Together, these data indicate that the Moon did not have a long-lived core dynamo. As a result, the Moon was not sheltered by a sustained paleomagnetosphere, and the lunar regolith should hold buried 3 He, water, and other volatile resources acquired from solar winds and Earth’s magnetosphere over some 4 billion years. 

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