MAGNETIC FIELDS IN STARS AND DISKS

Magnetic fields are thought to playa role in a wide variety of important astrophysical processes, from angular momentum transport and jet formation in accretion disks to corona formation in stars. Unfortunately, the dynamics of magnetic fields in astrophysical plasmas are extremely complicated, and the success of current theoretical models and computer simulations seems to be inversely correlated with the amount of observational detail available to us. Here I will discuss some of the more striking conflicts between numerical simulations and observations, and present an explanation for them based on an important dynamical process which is not adequately modeled in current numerical simulations. These processes will lead to the formation of flux tubes in stars and accretion disks, in accordance with observations. I will discuss some of the implications of flux tube formation for stellar and accretion disk dynamos.