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A Possible Connection between the de Vries Cycle and the Solar Dynamo

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Abstract

The physical process constraining the most significant quasi-periodicity in cosmogenic radionuclide records and in reconstructed sunspot-number records, the sharply-defined ≈ 210-yr de Vries cycle, is unknown. It is found here to coincide within the measurement errors with the beat of the Schwabe cycle’s ≈ 1/10.0 yr Fourier-spectrum secondary frequency-peak, with the cycle’s ≈ 1/10.5-yr central Fourier peak which is also its autocorrelation period. The lesser-known, but just as significant de Vries companion-oscillation of ≈ 230-yr coincides with the beat of the ≈ 1/11.0 yr main frequency peak with the ≈ 1/10.5 yr period. In the classical solar-dynamo mode-typology based on symmetries, the three beating quasi-decadal periods would correspond to the dipole mode (≈ 11.0 yr), the quadrupole mode (putatively ≈ 10.0 yr in historical sunspot data), and the composite “mixed-parity” mode (≈ 10.5 yr). The secondary beat of the observed ≈ 210-yr and ≈ 230-yr bicentennial oscillations yields a 2310 yr period. This value is consistent with the prominent Hallstatt cycle’s estimated length of 2300 yr in the Holocene.

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Acknowledgments

The idea of a paper about the de Vries cycle and decadal dynamo modes was sparked by conversations with Dr. A. Ruzmaikin and Prof. M. Schüssler at Space Climate 7 Symposium in Canton Orford (Canada) in July 2019. The author thanks Prof. D. D. Sokoloff and Prof. I. G. Usoskin for their personal communications. He is indebted to Dr. P. Reimer for her advice on the IntCal20 record. The author is grateful to Dr. F.-G. Carpentier and to Dr. I. Rivals for generously communicating their separate analyses of several IntCal20 time series. He is thankful to Dr. F.-G. Carpentier for his advice, and to Dr. A. Strugarek for an interesting conversation on dynamo symmetries. The author thanks an anonymous reviewer for his/her expert reading and assessment. This paper is dedicated to the memories of three late pioneers of the solar-beat conjecture: Dr. W. Berger, Dr. J. Feynman, and Dr. E. Nesme-Ribes.

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Appendix: Centennial Oscillation in Solar Activity: Spectral estimates

Appendix: Centennial Oscillation in Solar Activity: Spectral estimates

Table A.1 Eighteen estimates of the centennial-periodicity length in sunspot-number records.
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Table A.2 Estimates of the \(105 \pm 1\) yr spectral line in CR, RSN, and RSM records.
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Richard, JG. A Possible Connection between the de Vries Cycle and the Solar Dynamo. Sol Phys 297, 124 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-022-02052-y

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