Outstanding Issues in Solar Dynamo Theory

Abstract

The magnetic activity of the Sun, as manifested in the sunspot cycle, originates deep within its convection zone through a dynamo mechanism, which involves nontrivial interactions between the plasma and the magnetic field in the solar interior. Recent advances in magnetohydrodynamic dynamo theory have led us closer towards a better understanding of the physics of the solar magnetic cycle. In conjunction, helioseismic observations of large-scale flows in the solar interior has nowmade it possible to constrain some of the parameters used in models of the solar cycle. In the first part of this review, I briefly describe this current state of understanding of the solar cycle. In the second part, I highlight some of the outstanding issues in solar dynamo theory related to the nature of the dynamo α-effect, magnetic buoyancy, and the origin of Maunder-like minima in activity. I also discuss how poor constraints on key physical processes such as turbulent diffusion, meridional circulation, and turbulent flux pumping confuse the relative roles of these vis-a-vis magnetic flux transport. I argue that unless some of these issues are addressed, no model of the solar cycle can claim to be “the standard model,” nor can any predictions from such models be trusted; in other words, we are still not there yet.