We aim to set up a team of international experts to identify the current knowledge of magnetic field generation in the Sun and Sun-like stars and to establish a scientific collaboration to make breakthroughs in understanding of this process. The expertise of the Team members combines skills in theory, numerical simulations, ground- and space-based observations.
The proposal intends to discuss three main points:
- Magnetic activity in the Sun and stars shows cyclic variations over different time scales. The proposal aims to discuss how the properties of the activity cycles change along the stellar evolution;
- The mechanism for the generation of cycles in solar/stellar magnetic activity is a dynamo. Some progress has been made on simulating solar cycle properties, but many uncertainties still remain. Solar dynamo models are still lacking the simulation of longitude-dependent cycle features like the spatio-temporal distribution of active regions at the surface.
- Different types of stellar dynamos require different configurations, which may change throughout stellar evolution.
Thus stellar dynamos can shed light on solar dynamo models. Properties of magnetic cycles, varying during the stellar evolution, can be studied through suitable stellar samples. This will provide information on the past and the future of our Sun. The main expected outcome of the proposal is to share knowledge and to establish collaboration between solar and stellar communities working on magnetic activity/cycles, and to make crucial progress on theoretical descriptions of dynamo theory by understanding of the interaction of magnetic fields with turbulent flows.