Stellar Differential Rotation and Coronal Timescales

We investigate the timescales of evolution of stellar coronae in response to surface differential rotation and diffusion. To quantify this we study both the formation time and lifetime of a magnetic flux rope in a decaying bipolar active region. We apply a magnetic flux transport model to prescribe the evolution of the stellar photospheric field, and use this to drive the evolution of the coronal magnetic field via a magnetofrictional technique. Increasing the differential rotation (i.e. decreasing the equator-pole lap time) decreases the flux rope formation time. We find that the formation time is dependent upon the geometric mean of the lap time and the surface diffusion timescale. In contrast, the lifetime of flux ropes are proportional to the lap time. With this, flux ropes on stars with a differential rotation of more than eight times the solar value have a lifetime of less than two days. As a consequence, we propose that features such as solar-like quiescent prominences may not be easily observable on such stars, as the lifetimes of the flux ropes which host the cool plasma are very short. We conclude that such high differential rotation stars may have very dynamical coronae

Stellar coronal response to differential rotation and flux emergence

We perform a numerical parameter study to determine what effect varying differential rotation and flux emergence has on a star's non-potential coronal magnetic field. In particular we consider the effects on the star's surface magnetic flux, open magnetic flux, mean azimuthal field strength, coronal free magnetic energy, coronal heating and flux rope eruptions. To do this, we apply a magnetic flux transport model to describe the photospheric evolution, and couple this to the non-potential coronal evolution using a magnetofrictional technique. A flux emergence model is applied to add new magnetic flux on to the photosphere and into the corona. The parameters of this flux emergence model are derived from the solar flux emergence profile, however the rate of emergence can be increased to represent higher flux emergence rates than the Sun's. Overall we find that flux emergence has a greater effect on the non-potential coronal properties compared to differential rotation, with all the aforementioned properties increasing with increasing flux emergence rate. Although differential rotation has a lesser effect on the overall coronal properties compared to flux emergence, varying differential rotation does alter the coronal structure. As the differential rotation rate increases, the corona becomes more open, and more non-potential

Stellar differential rotation and coronal time-scales

We investigate the time-scales of evolution of stellar coronae in response to surface differential rotation and diffusion. To quantify this, we study both the formation time and lifetime of a magnetic flux rope in a decaying bipolar active region. We apply a magnetic flux transport model to prescribe the evolution of the stellar photospheric field, and use this to drive the evolution of the coronal magnetic field via a magnetofrictional technique. Increasing the differential rotation (i.e. decreasing the equator-pole lap time) decreases the flux rope formation time. We find that the formation time is dependent upon the lap time and the surface diffusion time-scale through the relation tau_Form ∝ &surd;{tau_Laptau_Diff}. In contrast, the lifetimes of flux ropes are proportional to the lap time (tauLife∝tauLap). With this, flux ropes on stars with a differential rotation of more than eight times the solar value have a lifetime of less than 2 d. As a consequence, we propose that features such as solar-like quiescent prominences may not be easily observable on such stars, as the lifetimes of the flux ropes which host the cool plasma are very short. We conclude that such high differential rotation stars may have very dynamical coronae

Stellar coronal response to differential rotation and flux emergence

We perform a numerical parameter study to determine what effect varying differential rotation and flux emergence has on a star's non-potential coronal magnetic field. In particular we consider the effects on the star's surface magnetic flux, open magnetic flux, mean azimuthal field strength, coronal free magnetic energy, coronal heating and flux rope eruptions. To do this, we apply a magnetic flux transport model to describe the photospheric evolution, and couple this to the non-potential coronal evolution using a magnetofrictional technique. A flux emergence model is applied to add new magnetic flux on to the photosphere and into the corona. The parameters of this flux emergence model are derived from the solar flux emergence profile, however the rate of emergence can be increased to represent higher flux emergence rates than the Sun's. Overall we find that flux emergence has a greater effect on the non-potential coronal properties compared to differential rotation, with all the aforementioned properties increasing with increasing flux emergence rate. Although differential rotation has a lesser effect on the overall coronal properties compared to flux emergence, varying differential rotation does alter the coronal structure. As the differential rotation rate increases, the corona becomes more open, and more non-potential