NIRwave: A wave-turbulence-driven solar wind model constrained by PSP observations

We generate a model description of the solar wind based on an explicit wave-turbulence-driven heating mechanism, and constrain our model with observational data. We included an explicit coronal heating source term in the general 3D magnetohydrodynamic code NIRVANA to simulate the properties of the solar wind. The adapted heating mechanism is based on the interaction and subsequent dissipation of counter-propagating Alfv\'en waves in the solar corona, accounting for a turbulent heating rate Q_p. The solar magnetic field is assumed to be an axisymmetric dipole with a field strength of 1 G. Our model results are validated against observational data taken by the Parker Solar Probe (PSP). Our NIRwave solar wind model reconstructs the bimodal structure of the solar wind with slow and fast wind speeds of 410 km/s and 650 km/s respectively. The global mass-loss rate of our solar wind model is 2.6e-14 solar masses per year. Despite implementing simplified conditions to represent the solar magnetic field, the solar wind parameters characterising our steady-state solution are in reasonable agreement with previously established results and empirical constraints. The number density from our wind solution is in good agreement with the derived empirical constraints, with larger deviations for the radial velocity and temperature. In a comparison to a polytropic wind model generated with NIRVANA, we find that our NIRwave model is in better agreement with the observational constraints that we derive.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Magnetic fields on young, moderately rotating Sun-like stars - I. HD 35296 and HD 29615

Observations of the magnetic fields of young solar-type stars provide a way to investigate the signatures of their magnetic activity and dynamos. Spectropolarimetry enables the study of these stellar magnetic fields and was thus employed at the Télescope Bernard Lyot and the Anglo-Australian Telescope to investigate two moderately rotating young Sun-like stars, namely HD 35296 (V119 Tau, HIP 25278) and HD 29615 (HIP 21632). The results indicate that both stars display rotational variation in chromospheric indices consistent with their spot activity, with variations indicating a probable long-term cyclic period for HD 35296. Additionally, both stars have complex, and evolving, large-scale surface magnetic fields with a significant toroidal component. High levels of surface differential rotation were measured for both stars. For the F8V star HD 35296 a rotational shear of ΔΩ = 0.22^{+0.04}_{-0.02} rad d-1 was derived from the observed magnetic profiles. For the G3V star HD 29615, the magnetic features indicate a rotational shear of ΔΩ = 0.48_{-0.12}^{+0.11} rad d-1, while the spot features, with a distinctive polar spot, provide a much lower value of ΔΩ of 0.07_{-0.03}^{+0.10} rad d-1. Such a significant discrepancy in shear values between spot and magnetic features for HD 29615 is an extreme example of the variation observed for other lower mass stars. From the extensive and persistent azimuthal field observed for both targets, it is concluded that a distributed dynamo operates in these moderately rotating Sun-like stars, in marked contrast to the Sun's interface-layer dynamo

The solar wind from a stellar perspective: how do low-resolution data impact the determination of wind properties?

Alfv\'en-wave-driven 3D magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) models, which are increasingly used to predict stellar wind properties, contain unconstrained parameters and rely on low-resolution stellar magnetograms. We explore the effects of the input Alfv\'en wave energy flux and the surface magnetogram on the wind properties predicted by the Alfv\'en Wave Solar Model (AWSoM). We lowered the resolution of two solar magnetograms during solar cycle maximum and minimum using spherical harmonic decomposition. The Alfv\'en wave energy was altered based on non-thermal velocities determined from a far ultraviolet (FUV) spectrum of the solar twin 18 Sco. Additionally, low-resolution magnetograms of three solar analogues were obtained using Zeeman Doppler imaging (ZDI). Finally, the simulated wind properties were compared to Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) observations. AWSoM simulations using well constrained input parameters taken from solar observations can reproduce the observed solar wind mass and angular momentum loss rates. The resolution of the magnetogram has a small impact on the wind properties and only during cycle maximum. However, variation in Alfv\'en wave energy influences the wind properties irrespective of the solar cycle activity level. Furthermore, solar wind simulations carried out using the low-resolution magnetogram of the three stars instead of the solar magnetogram could lead to an order of a magnitude difference in the simulated wind properties. The choice in Alfv\'en energy has a stronger influence on the wind output compared to the magnetogram resolution. The influence could be even stronger for stars whose input boundary conditions are not as well constrained as those of the Sun. Unsurprisingly, replacing the solar magnetogram with a stellar magnetogram could lead to completely inaccurate solar wind properties, and should be avoided in solar and stellar wind simulations.Comment: accepted for publication in A&

The impact of unresolved magnetic spots on high precision radial velocity measurements

This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ©: 2020 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.The Doppler method of exoplanet detection has been extremely successful, but suffers from contaminating noise from stellar activity. In this work a model of a rotating star with a magnetic field based on the geometry of the K2 star Epsilon Eridani is presented and used to estimate its effect on simulated radial velocity measurements. A number of different distributions of unresolved magnetic spots were simulated on top of the observed large-scale magnetic maps obtained from eight years of spectropolarimetric observations. The radial velocity signals due to the magnetic spots have amplitudes of up to 10 m s$^{-1}$, high enough to prevent the detection of planets under 20 Earth masses in temperate zones of solar type stars. We show that the radial velocity depends heavily on spot distribution. Our results emphasize that understanding stellar magnetic activity and spot distribution is crucial for detection of Earth analogues.Peer reviewe

The crucial role of surface magnetic fields for stellar dynamos : ϵ Eridani, 61 Cygni A, and the Sun

Funding: SVJ acknowledges the support of the DFG priority programme SPP 1992 “Exploring the Diversity of Extrasolar Planets (JE 701/5-1)”. RHC’s contribution to this work was supported in part by ERC Synergy Grant WHOLE SUN 810218. RHC benefited from discussions at the ISSI team ‘What determines the dynamo effectively of solar active regions?’. SBS acknowledges funding from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) under the Lise Meitner grant M 2829-N. MMJ acknowledges support from STFC Consolidated Grant ST/R000824/1. VS acknowledges funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Unions Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 682393 AWESoMeStars). AAV acknowledges funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 817540, ASTROFLOW). Based on observations obtained at the Telescope Bernard Lyot (USR5026) operated by the Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées, Université de Toulouse (Paul Sabatier), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique of France. Wilcox Solar Observatory (WSO) data used in this study were obtained via the web site http://wso.stanford.edu, courtesy of J. T. Hoeksema. This work uses data obtained with the TIGRE telescope, located at La Luz observatory, Mexico. TIGRE is a collaboration of the Hamburger Sternwarte, the Universities of Hamburg, Guanajuato and Liège. The Mount Wilson Observatory HK Project was supported by both public and private funds through the Carnegie Observatories, the Mount Wilson Institute, and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics starting in 1966 and continuing for over 36 years. These data are the result of the dedicated work of O. Wilson, A. Vaughan, G. Preston, D. Duncan, S. Baliunas, and many others. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2013-2016) under grant agreement No. 312430 (OPTICON).Cool main-sequence stars, such as the Sun, have magnetic fields which are generated by an internal dynamo mechanism. In the Sun, the dynamo mechanism produces a balance between the amounts of magnetic flux generated and lost over the Sun's 11-year activity cycle and it is visible in the Sun's different atmospheric layers using multi-wavelength observations. We used the same observational diagnostics, spanning several decades, to probe the emergence of magnetic flux on the two close by, active- and low-mass K dwarfs: 61 Cygni A and ϵ Eridani. Our results show that 61 Cygni A follows the Solar dynamo with a regular cycle at all wavelengths, while ϵ Eridani represents a more extreme level of the Solar dynamo, while also showing strong Solar-like characteristics. For the first time we show magnetic butterfly diagrams for stars other than the Sun. For the two K stars and the Sun, the rate at which the toroidal field is generated from surface poloidal field is similar to the rate at which toroidal flux is lost through flux emergence. This suggests that the surface field plays a crucial role in the dynamos of all three stars. Finally, for ϵ Eridani, we show that the two chromospheric cycle periods, of ~3 and ~13 years, correspond to two superimposed magnetic cycles.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Could a change in magnetic field geometry cause the break in the wind-activity relation?

AAV acknowledges support from the Swiss National Science Foundation through an Ambizione Fellowship. SVJ and SBS acknowledge research funding by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft under grant SFB 963/1, project A16.Wood et al. suggested that mass-loss rate is a function of X-ray flux (dot{M}∝ F_x^{1.34}) for dwarf stars with Fx ≲ Fx,6 ≡ 106 erg cm-2 s-1. However, more active stars do not obey this relation. These authors suggested that the break at Fx,6 could be caused by significant changes in magnetic field topology that would inhibit stellar wind generation. Here, we investigate this hypothesis by analysing the stars in Wood et al. sample that had their surface magnetic fields reconstructed through Zeeman-Doppler Imaging (ZDI). Although the solar-like outliers in the dot{M} - Fx relation have higher fractional toroidal magnetic energy, we do not find evidence of a sharp transition in magnetic topology at Fx,6. To confirm this, further wind measurements and ZDI observations at both sides of the break are required. As active stars can jump between states with highly toroidal to highly poloidal fields, we expect significant scatter in magnetic field topology to exist for stars with Fx ≳ Fx,6. This strengthens the importance of multi-epoch ZDI observations. Finally, we show that there is a correlation between Fx and magnetic energy, which implies that dot{M} - magnetic energy relation has the same qualitative behaviour as the original dot{M} - Fx relation. No break is seen in any of the Fx - magnetic energy relations.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe