MHD equilibria of astrospheric flows

Abstract

The hot gas cavities around stars which have a stellar wind are called astrospheres. Between the outer interstellar medium and the stellar wind there forms a contact surface or boundary surface which is called an astropause. In this thesis the geometrical shape of such an astrosphere/astropause region is calculated consistently together with the flow and magnetic fields, which occur in the interstellar medium and the stellar wind. It is also analyzed how this boundary surface becomes leaky due to finite resistivity effects, including the breakdown of magnetic field freezing (magnetic reconnection).