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abstract
Magnetoconvection in the Sun does not take place in the idealized situation in which the imposed field is vertical or horizontal. Instead fields in sunspots and other active region features are inclined to the vertical, and so the system does not possess the left-right symmetry that is a part of many analytical and numerical studies. As a step towards the understanding of convection in general field configurations, we consider the nonlinear behavior of three-dimensional compressible convection in the presence of a uniform, externally-imposed, oblique magnetic field and in a rectangular geometry. As in previous two-dimensional simulations, we find that all solutions take the form of traveling waves for angles of obliquity $0< \phi < \pi/2$, although the convection cells possess definite three-dimensional structures. The resulting traveling patterns heighten the impression that many of the dynamics observed within sunspot penumbra may be a consequence of magnetoconvection in oblique fields.
This work was supported in part by NASA contracts NASW-4612 and NAS8-3974 and Lockheed Independent Research Funds.
