No Arabic abstract
Magnetic fields are at the heart of the observed stellar activity in late-type stars, and they are presumably generated by a dynamo mechanism at the interface layer between the radiative and the convective stellar regions. Since dynamo models are based on the interaction between differential rotation and convective motions, the introduction of rotation in the ATON 2.3 stellar code allows for explorations regarding a physically consistent treatment of magnetic effects in stellar structure and evolution, even though there are formidable mathematical and numerical challenges involved. As examples, we present theoretical estimates for both the local (tau_c) and global (tau_g) convective turnover times for rotating pre-main sequence solar-type stars, based on up-to-date input physics for stellar models. Our theoretical predictions are compared with the previous ones available in the literature. In addition, we investigate the dependence of the convective turnover time on convection regimes, the presence of rotation and atmospheric treatment. Those estimates, this quantities can be used to calculate the Rossby number, Ro, which is related to the magnetic activity strength in dynamo theories and, at least for main-sequence stars, shows an observational correlation with stellar activity. More important, they can also contribute for testing stellar models against observations. Our theoretical values of tau_c, tau_g and Ro qualitatively agree with those published by Kim & Demarque (1996). By increasing the convection efficiency, tau_g decreases for a given mass. FST models show still lower values. The presence of rotation shifts tau_g towards slightly higher values when compared with non-rotating models. The use of non-gray boundary conditions in the models yields values of tau_g smaller than in the gray approximation.
The connection between stellar rotation, stellar activity, and convective turnover time is revisited with a focus on the sole contribution of magnetic activity to the Ca II H&K emission, the so-called excess flux, and its dimensionless indicator R$^{+}_{rm{HK}}$ in relation to other stellar parameters and activity indicators. Our study is based on a sample of 169 main-sequence stars with directly measured Mount Wilson S-indices and rotation periods. The R$^{+}_{rm{HK}}$ values are derived from the respective S-indices and related to the rotation periods in various $B-V$-colour intervals. First, we show that stars with vanishing magnetic activity, i.e. stars whose excess flux index R$^{+}_{rm{HK}}$ approaches zero, have a well-defined, colour-dependent rotation period distribution; we also show that this rotation period distribution applies to large samples of cool stars for which rotation periods have recently become available. Second, we use empirical arguments to equate this rotation period distribution with the global convective turnover time, which is an approach that allows us to obtain clear relations between the magnetic activity related excess flux index R$^{+}_{rm{HK}}$, rotation periods, and Rossby numbers. Third, we show that the activity versus Rossby number relations are very similar in the different activity indicators. As a consequence of our study, we emphasize that our Rossby number based on the global convective turnover time approaches but does not exceed unity even for entirely inactive stars. Furthermore, the rotation-activity relations might be universal for different activity indicators once the proper scalings are used.
Magnetic fields of late-type stars are presumably generated by a dynamo mechanism at the interface layer between the radiative interior and the outer convective zone. The Rossby number, which is related to the dynamo process, shows an observational correlation with activity. It represents the ratio between the rotation period of the star and the local convective turnover time. The former is well determined from observations but the latter is estimated by an empirical iterated function depending on the color index (B-V) and the mixing-length parameter. We computed the theoretical Rossby number of stellar models with the TGEC code, and analyze its evolution with time during the main sequence. We estimated a function for the local convective turnover time corresponding to a mixing-length parameter inferred from a solar model, and compare our results to the estimated Rossby number of 33 solar analogs and twins, observed with the spectropolarimeters ESPaDOnS@CFHT and Narval@LBT.
Using photometric data collected by Evryscope-South, we search for nearby young variable systems on the upper-main sequence (UMS) and pre-main sequence (PMS). The Evryscopes are all-sky high-cadence telescope arrays operating in the Northern and Southern hemispheres. We base our search on a Gaia-selected catalog of young neighborhood upper- and pre-main sequence stars which were chosen through both astrometric and photometric criteria. We analyze 44,971 Evryscope-South light curves in search of variability. We recover 615 variables, with 378 previously known, and 237 new discoveries including 84 young eclipsing binary (EB) candidates. We discover a new highly eccentric binary system and recover a further four previously known systems, with periods ranging from 299 to 674 hr. We find 158 long-period (>50 hr) candidate EB systems, 9 from the PMS and 149 from the UMS, which will allow constraints on the mass-radius-age relation. These long-period EBs include a 179.3 hr PMS system and a 867.8 hr system from the UMS. For PMS variable candidates we estimate system ages, which range from 1 to 23 Myr for non-EBs and from 2 to 17 Myr for EBs. Other non-EB discoveries that show intrinsic variability will allow relationships between stellar rotation rates, ages, activity, and mass to be characterized.
Chemical element transport processes are among the crucial physical processes needed for precise stellar modelling. Atomic diffusion by gravitational settling nowadays is usually taken into account, and is essential for helioseismic studies. On the other hand, radiative accelerations are rarely accounted for, act differently on the various chemical elements, and can strongly counteract gravity in some stellar mass domains. In this study we aim at determining whether radiative accelerations impact the structure of solar-like oscillating main-sequence stars observed by asteroseismic space missions. We implemented the calculation of radiative accelerations in the CESTAM code using the Single-Valued Parameter method. We built and compared several grids of stellar models including gravitational settling, but some with and others without radiative accelerations. We found that radiative accelerations may not be neglected for stellar masses larger than 1.1~M$_{odot}$ at solar metallicity. The difference in age due to their inclusion in models can reach 9% for the more massive stars of our grids. We estimated that the percentage of the PLATO core program stars whose modelling would require radiative accelerations ranges between 33 and 58% depending on the precision of the seismic data. We conclude that, in the context of Kepler, TESS, and PLATO missions, which provide (or will provide) high quality seismic data, radiative accelerations can have a significant effect when inferring the properties of solar-like oscillators properly. This is particularly important for age inferences. However, the net effect for each individual star results from the competition between atomic diffusion including radiative accelerations and other internal transport processes. This will be investigated in a forthcoming companion paper.
The bulk of X-ray emission from pre-main-sequence (PMS) stars is coronal in origin. We demonstrate herein that stars on Henyey tracks in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram have lower $log(L_X/L_ast)$, on average, than stars on Hayashi tracks. This effect is driven by the decay of $L_X$ once stars develop radiative cores. $L_X$ decays faster with age for intermediate mass PMS stars, the progenitors of main sequence A-type stars, compared to those of lower mass. As almost all main sequence A-type stars show no detectable X-ray emission, we may already be observing the loss of their coronae during their PMS evolution. Although there is no direct link between the size or mass of the radiative core and $L_X$, the longer stars have spent with partially convective interiors, the weaker their X-ray emission becomes. This conference paper is a synopsis of Gregory, Adams and Davies (2016).