Grand Challenges in the Physics of the Sun and Sun-like Stars

TL;DR

This paper discusses two major challenges in solar and stellar physics: understanding magnetic field generation through dynamos and improving space weather prediction, emphasizing recent advances and future research directions.

Contribution

It highlights two key grand challenges in solar and stellar physics, proposing that significant progress can be made in the next decade.

Findings

Advances in asteroseismology enhance understanding of stellar interiors.

Understanding solar and stellar dynamos is crucial for magnetic field insights.

Improving space weather predictability can mitigate impacts on Earth.

Abstract

The study of stellar structure and evolution is one of the main building blocks of astrophysics, and the Sun has an importance both as the star that is most amenable to detailed study and as the star that has by far the biggest impact on the Earth and near-Earth environment through its radiative and particulate outputs. Over the past decades, studies of stars and of the Sun have become somewhat separate. But in recent years, the rapid advances in asteroseismology, as well as the quest to better understand solar and stellar dynamos, have emphasized once again the synergy between studies of the stars and the Sun. In this article I have selected two "grand challenges" both for their crucial importance and because I thnk that these two problems are tractable to significant progress in the next decade. They are (i) understanding how solar and stellar dynamos generate magnetic field, and (ii) improving the predictability of geo-effective space weather.