From mean-field hydromagnetics to solar magnetic flux concentrations

Abstract: The main idea behind the work presented in this thesis is to investigate if it is possible to find a mechanism that leads to surface magnetic field concentrations and could operate under solar conditions without postulating the presence of magnetic flux tubes rising from the bottom of the convection zone, a commonly used yet physically problematic approach.In this context we study the ‘negative effective magnetic pressure effect’: it was pointed out in earlier work (Kleeorin et al., 1989) that the presence of a weak magnetic field can lead to a reduction of the mean turbulent pressure on large length scales. This reduction is now indeed clearly observed in simulations.As magnetic fluctuations experience an unstable feedback through this effect, it leads, in a stratified medium, to the formation of magnetic structures, first observed numerically in the fifth paper of this thesis. While our setup is relatively simple, one wonders if this instability, as a mechanism able to concentrate magnetic fields in the near surface layers, may play a role in the formation of sunspots, starting from a weak dynamo-generated field throughout the convection zone rather than from strong flux tubes stored at the bottom.A generalization of the studied case is ongoing.