A17 Magnetic fields and dynamos: from planets to low-mass stars

Prof. Dr. Ulrich Christensen, Dr. Ansgar Reiners

The project aims at a better understanding of the communalities and differences in the magnetic field and the process of its generation in planets and stars. In an observational part we will search for spectroscopic evidence for magnetic fields at aged brown dwarfs, i.e. objects that are intermediate between stars and planets. In a modeling part we will concentrate on the effects of density stratification, which increases strongly from planets to stars, on the dynamo process. We will study its influence on scaling laws for magnetic field strength and magnetic field geometry.