I completed my PhD at the University of Exeter in May 2020, as part of the AWESoMeStars ERC project under the supervision of Prof. Sean Matt. I continued working with Prof. Sean Matt in Exeter as a Postdoctoral Research Associate until December 2020. Since then, I have been employed as a Postdoctoral Researcher at CEA Paris-Saclay with Prof. Sacha Brun, as part of the WholeSun ERC project.
My research focuses on the atmospheres of stars like the Sun, which are heated to millions of degrees and subsequently escape in the form of stellar winds. During my PhD, I investigated how these winds remove angular momentum from Sun-like stars using a combination of numerical models and observations. However, I quickly learnt that even for our closest star (the Sun) measuing the loss of angular momentum (how quickly the Sun's rotation is slowing down) is challenging… so I placed constraints by evaluating the solar wind angular momentum flux and the rotation of the Sun’s atmosphere. Now, as part of the WholeSun project, I am investigating the heating of the solar atmosphere and the generation of magnetic flux inside Sun-like stars, using numerical simulations. I have also been assessing long-term trends in the Sun’s magnetic activity, from persistent active longitudes to the role of coronal holes in sculpting the solar wind. Some of my time is devoted to following the Sun’s flaring activity, and producing weekly bulletins that are widely distributed.
My Papers!The surface of the Sun sits at a modest 5800 kelvin and yet the solar atmosphere/wind above is heated to millions of kelvin. What processes are important in heating the solar corona, and how does this energy balance change for other stars (with different ages, masses, metalicities, etc...)?
During the lifetime of a star like the Sun, its wind will remove a negligable amount of mass. However due to the star's magnetic field, this mass-loss efficiently removes angular momentum causing the star's rotation period to increase with age. How much angular momentum is the solar wind removing from the Sun right now?
Stars like the Sun generate magnetic fields through an internal dynamo; powered by the interplay of rotation and convection. These magnetic fields play an important role in transporting energy to their stellar winds, which influences their mass-loss, and angular momentum-loss rates.
Long-lived Solar Active Region Nest During 2022: Near-continuous Monitoring of Flaring with Combined Observations Finley, A. J., Brun, S., Strugarek, A., et al. in Preperation ??? (2024).
Magnetofrictional Simulations Confirm Rigid Coronal Rotation Aslanyan, V., Finley, A. J., Meyer, K., and Yeates, A. in Preperation ??? (2024).
Closing the solar dynamo loop: poloidal field generation at the surface Cameron, R., Schunker, H., Brun, A. S., Strugarek, A., Finley, A. J., et al. Under Review ??? (2024).
Magnetic Activity Evolution of Solar-like Stars: II. S_ph-Ro Evolution of Kepler Main-Sequence Targets Mathur, S., Santos, A., Claytor, Z., Garcia, R., Strugarek, A., Finley, A. J., et al. Under Review ??? (2024).
Nested Active Regions Anchor the Heliospheric Current Sheet and Stall the Reversal of the Coronal Magnetic Field Finley, A. J. Accepted to Astronomy and Astrophysics ??? (2024).
Impact of Solar Orbiter Far-side Data on Coronal and Heliospheric Wind Simulations Perri, B., Finley, A. J., Reville, V., Parenti, S, Brun, A. S., Strugarek, A., and Buchlin, E. Astronomy and Astrophysics 687.A10 (2024).
Kepler Main-sequence Stars: Surface Rotation and Magnetic Activity Evolution Santos, A. R. G., Godoy-Rivera, D., Finley, A. J., Mathur, S., Garcia, R. A., Breton, S. N., and Broomhall, A. Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences 10.3389 (2024).
How Well Does Surface Magnetism Represent Deep Sun-like Star Dynamo Action? Finley, A. J., Brun, A. S., Strugarek, A., and Cameron, R. Astronomy and Astrophysics 684.A92 (2024).
Weakened Magnetic Braking in the Exoplanet Host Star 51 Peg Metcalfe, T. S., Strassmeier, K. G., Ilyin, I. V., Buzasi, D., Ayres, T. R., ..., Finley, A. J., et al. The Astrophysical Journal Letters 960.L5 (2024).
Evolution of Solar Wind Sources and Coronal Rotation Driven by the Cyclic Variation of the Sun's Large-scale Magnetic Field Finley, A. J., and Brun, A. S. Astronomy and Astrophysics 679.A29 (2023).
Asteroseismology and Spectropolarimetry of the Exoplanet Host Star λ Serpentis Metcalfe, T. S., Buzasi, D., Huber, D., Pinsonnault, M. H., van Saders, J. L., ..., Finley, A. J., et al. The Astrophysical Journal 166.4 (2023): 167.
Constraints on Magnetic Braking from the G8 Dwarf Stars 61 UMa and τ Cet Metcalfe, T. S., Strassmeier, K. G., Ilyin, I. V., van Saders, J. L., Ayres, T. R., ..., Finley, A. J., et al. The Astrophysical Journal Letters 948.1 (2023): L6.
The Influence of Solar Differential Rotation on Calculations of the Sun's Angular Momentum-loss Rate Finley, A. J., and Brun, A. S. Astronomy and Astrophysics 674.A42 (2023).
Observations of Quiescent Solar Wind Regions with Near-fce Wave Activity Short, B., Malaspina, D. M., Halekas, J., Romeo, O., Verniero, J. L., Finley, A. J., et al. The Astrophysical Journal 940.1 (2022): 45.
Stirring the base of the solar wind: On heat transfer and vortex formation Finley, A. J., Brun, A. S., Carlsson, M., Szydlarski, M., Hansteen, V., and Shoda, M. Astronomy and Astrophysics 665.A118 (2022).
The Origin of Weakened Magnetic Braking in Old Solar Analogs Metcalfe, T. S., Finley, A. J., Kochukhov, O., See, V., et al. The Astrophysical Journal Letters 933 (2022): L17.
Effect of Differential Rotation on Magnetic Braking of Low-Mass and Solar-Like Stars: A Proof-of-Concept Study Ireland, L. G., Matt, S. P., Davey, C. R., Harris, O. L., Slade-Harajda, T. W., Finley, A. J. , and Zanni, C. The Astrophysical Journal 925.1 (2022): 100.
A Statistical Evaluation of Ballistic Backmapping for the Slow Solar Wind: The Interplay of Solar Wind Acceleration and Corotation Macneil, A. R., Owens, M., Finley, A. J. , and Matt, S. P. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 509 (2022).
The Influence of Magnetic Field Inclination on Angular Momentum Loss from Thermally Driven Winds Finley, A. J., Matt, S. P., and Zanni, C. in Preperation (???).
Magnetic and Rotational Evolution of rho CrB from Asteroseismology with TESS Metcalfe, T. S., van Saders, J. L., Basu, S., Buzasi, D., Drake, J. J., Egeland, R., Huber, D., Saar, S. H., Stassun, K. G., Ball, W. H., Campante, T. L., Finley, A. J. et al, The Astrophysical Journal Letters 921 (2021): L122.
The Solar Wind Angular Momentum Flux Observed During Solar Orbiter’s First Orbit Verscharen, D., Stansby, D., Finley, A. J., Owens, C. J., Horbury, T. et al, Astronomy and Astrophysics SolO Special Issue (2021).
The Contribution of Alpha Particles to the Solar Wind Angular Momentum Flux in the Inner Heliosphere Finley, A. J., McManus, M, Matt, S. P., Kasper, J. et al, Astronomy and Astrophysics Parker Solar Probe: Ushering a new frontier in space exploration (2021).
The Solar Wind Angular Momentum Flux as Observed by Parker Solar Probe Finley, A. J., Matt, S. P., Réville, V., Pinto, R. F., Owens, M., Kasper, J. et al, The Astrophysical Journal Letters 902 (2020): L4.
Parker Solar Probe Observations of Suprathermal Electron Flux Enhancements Originating from Coronal Hole Boundaries Macneil, A. R., Owens, M., Bercic, L. and Finley, A. J., Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 498 (2020): 4.
Alfvén-wave-driven Magnetic Rotator Winds from Low-mass Stars. I. Rotation Dependences of Magnetic Braking and Mass-loss Rate Shoda, M., Suzuki, T. K., Matt, S. P., Cranmer, S. R., Vidotto, A. A., Strugarek, A., See, V., Réville, V., Finley, A. J. , and Brun, A. S., The Astrophysical Journal 896.2 (2020): 123.
How Much do Underestimated Field Strengths from Zeeman-Doppler Imaging Affect Spin-down Torque Estimates? See, V., Lehmann, L., Matt, S. P., and Finley, A. J. The Astrophysical Journal 894.1 (2020): 69.
Direct Detection of Solar Angular Momentum Loss with the Wind Spacecraft Finley, A. J., Hewitt, A. L., Matt, S. P., Owens, M., Pinto, R. F. and Réville, V. The Astrophysical Journal Letters 885 (2019): L30.
Do Non-dipolar Magnetic Fields Contribute to Spin-down Torques? See, V., Matt, S. P., Finley, A. J., Folsom, C. P., Boro Saikia, S., Donati, J. F., Fares, R. et al. The Astrophysical Journal 886.2 (2019): 120.
Solar Angular Momentum Loss Over the Past Several Millennia Finley, A. J., Deshmukh, S., Matt, S. P., Owens, M. and Wu, C. J. The Astrophysical Journal 883.1 (2019): 67.
The Effect of Magnetic Variability on Stellar Angular Momentum Loss II: The Sun, 61 Cygni A, ε Eridani, ξ Bootis A and τ Bootis A Finley, A. J., See, V., and Matt, S. P. The Astrophysical Journal 876.1 (2019): 44.
Estimating Magnetic Filling Factors from Zeeman-Doppler Magnetograms See, V., Matt, S. P., Folsom, C. P., Boro Saikia, S., Donati, J. F., Fares, R., Finley, A. J. et al. The Astrophysical Journal 876.2 (2019): 118.
The Effect of Magnetic Variability on Stellar Angular Momentum Loss I: The Solar Wind Torque During Sunspot Cycles 23 & 24 Finley, A. J., Matt, S. P., and See, V. The Astrophysical Journal 864.2 (2018): 125.
The Effect of Combined Magnetic Geometries on Thermally Driven Winds. II. Dipolar, Quadrupolar, and Octupolar Topologies Finley, A. J., and Matt, S. P. The Astrophysical Journal 854.2 (2018): 78.
The Effect of Combined Magnetic Geometries on Thermally Driven Winds I: Interaction of Dipolar and Quadrupolar Fields Finley, A. J., and Matt, S. P. The Astrophysical Journal 845.1 (2017): 46.
PhD Physics - University of Exeter (2016-2020)
MPhys Physics with Astrophysics and Space Science - Lancaster University (2012-2016)
Amy Hewitt - Direct Detection of Solar Wind Angular Momentum Flux - 2019
Siddhant Deshmukh - Long-time Variability of the Solar Angular Momentum Loss Rate - 2018
Dean Patient - 3D Printing of Stellar Magnetic Fields - 2017
Undergraduate Student Project: Le Soleil, Solar Orbiter/EUI et la Rotation/Déformation des Trous Coronaux (2023)
Undergraduate Student Project: Mesure de la Rotation de l'Atmosphere Solaire avec des Images EUV (2022)
Postgraduate Teaching Assistant (2016-2020):
PHY2021 - Electromagnetism I
PHY2022 - Quantum Mechanics I
PHY2023 - Thermal Physics
PHY2024 - Condensed Matter I
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Astronomy & Astrophysics
The Astrophysical Journal
Invited Speaker at the International Conference of Physics Students, Tbilisi, Georgia, August 2024
ESA ESTEC Visit - Invited Seminar, Leiden, Netherlands, July 2024
Invited Seminar at the University of Birmingham, UK, May 2024
Invited Lecturer at Exoplanet Diversity Spring School, Kiel, Germany, May 2024
Invited Seminar at the University of Dundee, UK, November 2023
Invited Seminar at the University of Reading, UK, October 2022
Invited Talk at Skumanich Conference, Boulder, US, March 2022
Invited Virtual Solar Seminar at Northumbria University, December 2020
Invited Virtual Nordic Dynamo Seminar Series, November 2020
Invited Virtual Astrophysics Seminar at Trinity College Dublin, October 2020
Invited Seminar at the DAMTP, University of Cambridge, October 2018
UK National Astronomy Meeting - Contributed Talks, Hull, UK, July 2024
Cool Stars 22 - Contributed Splinter Talk, San Diego, California, US, June 2024
Solar Orbiter STIX Meeting - Contributed Talk, Paris, France, June 2024
Joint PSP, SO, DKIST Meeting (Eclipse 2024) - Contributed Talk, San Antonio, Texas, US, April 2024
European Space Weather Week 2023 - Contributed Poster, Toulouse, France, November 2023
UK National Astronomy Meeting - Contributed Talk, Cardiff, UK, July 2023
Solar Wind 16 - Contributed Talk, Monterey, California, US, June 2023
Flux Emergence Workshop - Contributed Talk, Santorini, Greece, June 2023
SOLARNET Meeting - Contributed Talk, IAP, Potsdam, Germany, May 2023
Bcool 2023 - Contributed Talk, MPS, Gottingen, Germany, April 2023
4th Parker Solar Probe Scholars Meeting - Contributed Talk, November 2022
Solar Orbiter 8 Workshop - Contributed Talk, Belfast, UK, September 2022
IAU General Assembly 2022 - Contributed Talks in IAUS372 and IAUS370, Busan, Rep. of Korea, August 2022
UK National Astronomy Meeting - Contributed Talk and Poster, University of Warwick, UK, July 2022
Cool Stars 21 - Contributed Talk and Poster, Toulouse, France, July 2022
Programme National Soleil Terre (PNST), Contributed Talk and Poster, Marseille, France, May 2022
Lorentz Center - Magnetohydrodynamics: Physics for the 21st Century, Leiden, October 2021
SOLARNET Summer School - High Resolution Solar Physics, September 2021
2nd Parker Solar Probe Scholars Meeting - Contributed Talk, August 2021
UK National Astronomy Meeting 2021 - Contributed Talk, July 2021
PARKER ONE Conference - Contributed Talk, June 2021
SF2A (French National Astronomy Meeting) 2021 - Contributed Poster, May 2021
Virtual Bcool 2021 - Presented Talk via Zoom, April 2021
Preamble to the Solar Orbiter Summer School - Presented Poster, April 2021
Cool Stars 20.5 - Presented Haiku, March 2021
UKSP Specialist Discussion Day - Presented Talk via Zoom, July 2020
3rd Uk Solar Orbiter Meeting - Presented Talk at St Andrews, UK, January 2020
Gave a seminar to the Solar Physics group, University of Exeter, October 2019
Chaired the Bath, Bristol, Exeter and Cardiff Student Seminars, University of Exeter, UK, October 2019
STFC Adv. Summer School in Solar System Plasmas, Lancaster Univeristy, UK, September 2019
Bcool 2019 - Presented Talk at University of Exeter, UK, July 2019
IAUS354: Solar and Stellar Magnetic Fields: Origins and Manifestations (Eclipse 2019) - Presented Poster in Copiapo, Chile, July 2019
ISSI Team Meeting "Solar & Stellar Wind Connection", Bern, Switzerland, June 2019
Evry Schatzman School "Multi-D Processes in Stellar Physics", Roscoff, France, October 2018
STFC Intro. Summer School in Solar System Plasmas, University of Exeter, UK, August 2018
Cool Stars 20 - Presented Poster in Boston, MA, July 2018
Internal Seminar - Presented talk entitled "The Effect of Magnetic Geometry on the Angular Momentum Loss From the Sun and Other Stars", University of Exeter, July 2018
Bcool 2018 - Presented Talk at Trinity College Dublin, April 2018
BBECss - Presented talk entitled "The Effect of Magnetic Variability on the Angular Momentum Loss From the Sun and Other Stars", University of Exeter, December 2017
2nd Year Talks - Presented talk entitled 'Rotational Evolution of Sun-Like Stars Due to Their Stellar Winds", University of Exeter, October 2017
Ages2 Conference - Presented Poster in Elba, Italy, September 2017
Rotation and Activity Mini Meeting - Western Washington University, WA, August 2017
IAUS 335: Space Weather of the Heliosphere: Processes and Forecasts - Assisted the LOC, University of Exeter, July 2017
Bcool 2017 - Presentation and 3D models in Montpellier, July 2017
National Astronomy Meeting 2017 - Presented Poster and 3D models at University of Hull, July 2017
Peer-Organised 1st Year Astrophysics Development Day - University of Exeter, June 2017
TOUPIES Wrap-up - Meeting at Universite de Montpelier France, November 2016
HPC Methods for Computational Fluid Dynamics and Astrophysics - Workshop at CINECA Bologna Italy, November 2016
Star Formation - Conference at Exeter University, September 2016
Modern Observations, Theory and Techniques for Solar and Stellar Physics - Meeting at Warwick University, July 2016
Produced 3D Graphic for CNRS Press Release of Amard & Brun 2024, October 2024
Public Youtube Livestream, September 2024
Cover of Astronomy & Astrophysics, June 2023
Actualites Scientific CEA, October 2022
Weekendavisen (Danish Online Newspaper) "Mission Ikaros", December 2019
Nature News "Sun-bombing spacecraft uncovers secrets of the solar wind", December 2019
Institution Address:
DRF/IRFU/DAp/LDE3
CEA Paris-Saclay
Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex
91191
France
