Zeeman-Tomography of the Solar Photosphere -- 3-Dimensional Surface Structures Retrieved from Hinode Observations

AIMS :The thermodynamic and magnetic field structure of the solar photosphere is analyzed by means of a novel 3-dimensional spectropolarimetric inversion and reconstruction technique. METHODS : On the basis of high-resolution, mixed-polarity magnetoconvection simulations, we used an artificial neural network (ANN) model to approximate the nonlinear inverse mapping between synthesized Stokes spectra and the underlying stratification of atmospheric parameters like temperature, line-of-sight (LOS) velocity and LOS magnetic field. This approach not only allows us to incorporate more reliable physics into the inversion process, it also enables the inversion on an absolute geometrical height scale, which allows the subsequent combination of individual line-of-sight stratifications to obtain a complete 3-dimensional reconstruction (tomography) of the observed area. RESULTS : The magnetoconvection simulation data, as well as the ANN inversion, have been properly processed to be applicable to spectropolarimetric observations from the Hinode satellite. For the first time, we show 3-dimensional tomographic reconstructions (temperature, LOS velocity, and LOS magnetic field) of a quiet sun region observed by Hinode. The reconstructed area covers a field of approximately 12000 by 12000 km and a height range of 510 km in the photosphere. An enormous variety of small and large scale structures can be identified in the 3-D reconstructions. The low-flux region (B_{mag} = 20G) we analyzed exhibits a number of "tube-like" magnetic structures with field strengths of several hundred Gauss. Most of these structures rapidly loose their strength with height and only a few larger structures can retain a higher field strength to the upper layers of the photosphere.Comment: accepted for A&A Letter

Detecting and quantifying stellar magnetic fields -- Sparse Stokes profile approximation using orthogonal matching pursuit

In the recent years, we have seen a rapidly growing number of stellar magnetic field detections for various types of stars. Many of these magnetic fields are estimated from spectropolarimetric observations (Stokes V) by using the so-called center-of-gravity (COG) method. Unfortunately, the accuracy of this method rapidly deteriorates with increasing noise and thus calls for a more robust procedure that combines signal detection and field estimation. We introduce an estimation method that provides not only the effective or mean longitudinal magnetic field from an observed Stokes V profile but also uses the net absolute polarization of the profile to obtain an estimate of the apparent (i.e., velocity resolved) absolute longitudinal magnetic field. By combining the COG method with an orthogonal-matching-pursuit (OMP) approach, we were able to decompose observed Stokes profiles with an overcomplete dictionary of wavelet-basis functions to reliably reconstruct the observed Stokes profiles in the presence of noise. The elementary wave functions of the sparse reconstruction process were utilized to estimate the effective longitudinal magnetic field and the apparent absolute longitudinal magnetic field. A multiresolution analysis complements the OMP algorithm to provide a robust detection and estimation method. An extensive Monte-Carlo simulation confirms the reliability and accuracy of the magnetic OMP approach.Comment: A&A, in press, 15 pages, 14 figure

Spot evolution on the red giant star XX Triangulum. A starspot-decay analysis based on time-series Doppler imaging

Solar spots appear to decay linearly proportional to their size. The decay rate of solar spots is directly related to magnetic diffusivity, which itself is a key quantity for the length of a magnetic-activity cycle. Is a linear spot decay also seen on other stars, and is this in agreement with the large range of solar and stellar activity cycle lengths? We investigate the evolution of starspots on the rapidly-rotating ($P_{\rm rot}$ $\approx$ 24 d) K0 giant XX Tri, using consecutive time-series Doppler images. Our aim is to obtain a well-sampled movie of the stellar surface over many years, and thereby detect and quantify a starspot decay law for further comparison with the Sun. We obtained continuous high-resolution and phase-resolved spectroscopy with the 1.2-m robotic STELLA telescope on Tenerife over six years. For each observing season, we obtained between 5 to 7 independent Doppler images, one per stellar rotation, making up a total of 36 maps. To quantify starspot area decay and growth, we match the observed images with simplified spot models based on a Monte Carlo approach. It is shown that the surface of XX Tri is covered with large high-latitude and even polar spots and with occasional small equatorial spots. Just over the course of six years, we see a systematically changing spot distribution with various timescales and morphology, such as spot fragmentation and spot merging as well as spot decay and formation. An average linear decay of $D$ = $-$0.022 $\pm$ 0.002 SH/day is inferred. We found evidence of an active longitude in phase toward the (unseen) companion star. Furthermore, we detect a weak solar-like differential rotation with a surface shear of $\alpha$ = 0.016 $\pm$ 0.003. From the decay rate, we determine a turbulent diffusivity of $\eta_T$ = (6.3 $\pm$ 0.5) $\times$ 10$^{14}$ cm$^2$/s and predict a magnetic activity cycle of $\approx$ 26 $\pm$ 6 years