2004-2005 Colloquium Series

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NAU Physical Sciences (Bldg 19, Rm 321), Monday, 18 April 2005, 4:00 PM
(Refreshments at 3:45pm)

Cooking With Gauss: The Designer Kitchen of Magnetic Funnels and Siphons In Close Binary Systems

Gary Schmidt
University of Arizona

Abstract

In 1977, S. Tapia at the Univ. of Arizona discovered a short-period binary system whose optical light is circularly polarized by as much as 20%. The regime of magnetic accretion that was revealed by this measurement has been a source of interest and excitement for observers and theorists alike. Magnetic shocks, field-aligned flows, turbulent coupling regions, funnels, and siphons are entertaining and instructional ingredients of this remarkable picture, which continues to reveal itself through discoveries using today's orbiting observatories, deep optical surveys, and sensitive instrumentation aboard large telescopes. The most recent discoveries may be the oddest members of the family, with magnetic emission lines that can be mistaken for those of QSOs, non-contact accretion, and "bombardment" solutions to the hydrodynamic equations.

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