STARS2 - Home Page

This site is currently under construction, all the links are not yet available

you can however find a description of the post-doctoral positions HERE

A nice visualization can be seen HERE.

The STARS² project aims at modelling on massively parallel supercomputers in a self-consistent and three-dimensional way, the complex, time dependent and nonlinear dynamics operating in the Sun and stars. In particular we wish to understand how stars generate the wide variety of magnetic activity that is observed, with the Sun - given its proximity and its influence on our technical society - playing a central role in characterizing, studying, and constraining the dynamical processes acting in stellar convection and radiation zones. Studying the solar-stellar connection is crucial because it will allow us to understand why depending on the spectral type of the star considered, this activity can be cyclic (solar type stars), irregular (very low mass stars), or for massive stars, without any activity or simply a modulated one. The mechanism thought to be at the origin of the magnetism seen in solar (late) type stars is likely to be linked to dynamo action in the upper convective layers of such stars. The simultaneous existence in stars of convective turbulent motions, of rotation and its associated differential rotation and shear layers, favour the emergence of a small and/or large scale magnetic field through induction. For more massive stars, possessing a convective core, understanding the interaction between the dynamo generated magnetic field in the core and the probable fossil magnetic field of their radiative envelope, or the existence of dynamo action in radiative envelope also constitute major challenges of stellar/astrophysical fluid dynamics. To achieve these challenging scientific goals, the STARS² project proposed to federate a team of young bright scientists around the PI and to perform and to analyse sophisticated and more realistic high performance numerical simulations of the Sun and of stars of various spectral types. These simulations are at the front-edge of current research in astrophysics, they require the use of the latest class of supercomputers available in Europe and will lead to real scientific breakthroughs and major publications in scientific journals.

Understanding the nonlinear interactions between convection, turbulence, shear, rotation and magnetic fields in stars IS the main scientific goal of this project