Effects of Dynamo-Generated Large-Scale Magnetic Fields on the Surface Gravity ($f$) Mode

TL;DR

This study uses 3D simulations to explore how self-generated large-scale magnetic fields from a dynamo process affect the surface gravity ($f$) mode in the Sun, revealing significant perturbations when magnetic fields reach saturation.

Contribution

It introduces a self-consistent dynamo model to investigate the impact of large-scale magnetic fields on the $f$-mode, extending previous idealized studies.

Findings

$f$-mode frequency and strength increase with saturated magnetic fields.

Effects are more pronounced at larger wavenumbers.

Results support earlier observations of $f$-mode strengthening due to magnetic fields.

Abstract

By modelling the upper layers of the Sun in terms of a two-layer setup where a free-surface exists within the computational domain, we numerically study the interaction between the surface gravity, or the fundamental ($f$) mode, and the magnetic fields. Earlier such works were idealized in the sense that the static magnetic fields were imposed below the photosphere, i.e., the free-surface, to detect signatures of sub-surface magnetic fields and flows on the $f$-mode. In this work, we perform three-dimensional (3D) numerical simulations where the interior fluid below the photosphere is stirred helically at small scales, thus facilitating an $\alpha^2$-dynamo. This allows us to investigate how these self-consistently generated large-scale magnetic fields influence the properties of the $f$-mode. We find that when the magnetic fields saturate near the equipartition values with the turbulent kinetic energy of the flow, the $f$-mode is significantly perturbed. Compared to the non-magnetic case, or the kinematic phase of the dynamo when fields are too weak, we note that the frequencies and the strengths of the $f$-mode are enhanced in presence of saturated magnetic fields, with these effects being larger at larger wavenumbers. This qualitatively confirms the earlier findings from observational and numerical works which reported the $f$-mode strengthening due to strong sub-surface magnetic fields.