11/02/2023
By Lukas Hanson
The Kennedy College of Sciences, Department of Physics and Applied Physics, invites you to attend a Master's thesis defense by Lukas Hanson on "Using the Space Weather Modeling Framework to Study the Solar Wind of the Sun and Sun-like Stars."
Candidate Name: Lukas Hanson
Defense Date: Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023
Location: Physics Department Conference Room, 1st Floor Olney Hall
Thesis Title: Using the Space Weather Modeling Framework to Study the Solar Wind of the Sun and Sun-like Stars
Advisor: Ofer Cohen, Ph.D., Physics and Applied Physics, UMass Lowell
Committee Members: Silas Laycock, Ph.D., Physics and Applied Physics, UMass Lowell; Viktor Podolskiy, Ph.D., Physics and Applied Physics, UMass Lowell
Abstract:
In this paper I study how the wind of a Sun-like main sequence star may evolve over time. To do this, I employ a set of proxy stars which serve as source of historical
solar data in lieu of real observations for the Sun. A steady state solution for the solar wind of each star is solved for using a magnetohydrodynamic model that takes into account the turbulent cascade of Alfv`e waves in the corona. Here I assume that the transverse correlation length of these waves is approximately the same for each star, including the Sun, for which the model is validated. These solutions provide solar wind properties at all points in space between the surface of the star and 1 AU.
The data at 1 AU is extracted and averaged so that it may be related to stellar age, stellar rotational period, and average surface magnetic field strength. The results of this study show that as a Sun-like star ages, the temperature and velocity of the wind decreases due to a dependency on the magnetic field strength of the star. Future work utilizing this method could be to study star-planet interactions while varying the properties of the planet, or to better constrain the transverse correlation length.