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Register a new userThe impact and evolution of magnetic confinement in hot stars
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Magnetic confinement of the winds of hot, massive stars has far-reaching consequences on timescales ranging from hours to Myr. Understanding the long-term effects of this interplay has already led to the identification of two new evolutionary pathways to form `heavy stellar mass black holes and pair-instability supernova even at galactic metallicity. We are performing 1D stellar evolution model calculations that, for the first time, account for the surface effects and the time evolution of fossil magnetic fields. These models will be thoroughly confronted with observations and will potentially lead to a significant revision of the derived parameters of observed magnetic massive stars.
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Large-scale dipolar surface magnetic fields have been detected in a fraction of OB stars, however only few stellar evolution models of massive stars have considered the impact of these fossil fields. We are performing 1D hydrodynamical model calculations taking into account evolutionary consequences of the magnetospheric-wind interactions in a simplified parametric way. Two effects are considered: i) the global mass-loss rates are reduced due to mass-loss quenching, and ii) the surface angular momentum loss is enhanced due to magnetic braking. As a result of the magnetic mass-loss quenching, the mass of magnetic massive stars remains close to their initial masses. Thus magnetic massive stars - even at Galactic metallicity - have the potential to be progenitors of `heavy stellar mass black holes. Similarly, at Galactic metallicity, the formation of pair instability supernovae is plausible with a magnetic progenitor.
About 10% of hot stars host a fossil magnetic field on the pre-main sequence and main sequence. However, the first magnetic evolved hot stars have been discovered only recently. An observing program has been set up to find more such objects. This will allow us to test how fossil fields evolve, and the impact of magnetism on stellar evolution. Already 7 evolved magnetic hot stars are now known and the rate of magnetic discoveries in the survey suggests that they host dynamo fields in addition to fossil fields. Finally, the weakness of the measured fields is compatible at first order with simple magnetic flux conservation, although the current statistics cannot exclude intrinsic decay or enhancement during stellar evolution.
Detection of magnetic fields has been reported in several sdO and sdB stars. Recent literature has cast doubts on the reliability of most of these detections. We revisit data previously published in the literature, and we present new observations to clarify the question of how common magnetic fields are in subdwarf stars. We consider a sample of about 40 hot subdwarf stars. About 30 of them have been observed with the FORS1 and FORS2 instruments of the ESO VLT. Here we present new FORS1 field measurements for 17 stars, 14 of which have never been observed for magnetic fields before. We also critically review the measurements already published in the literature, and in particular we try to explain why previous papers based on the same FORS1 data have reported contradictory results. All new and re-reduced measurements obtained with FORS1 are shown to be consistent with non-detection of magnetic fields. We explain previous spurious field detections from data obtained with FORS1 as due to a non-optimal method of wavelength calibration. Field detections in other surveys are found to be uncertain or doubtful, and certainly in need of confirmation. There is presently no strong evidence for the occurrence of a magnetic field in any sdB or sdO star, with typical longitudinal field uncertainties of the order of 2-400 G. It appears that globally simple fields of more than about 1 or 2 kG in strength occur in at most a few percent of hot subdwarfs, and may be completely absent at this strength. Further high-precision surveys, both with high-resolution spectropolarimeters and with instruments similar to FORS1 on large telescopes, would be very valuable.
We study the impact of rotation on the hydrodynamic evolution of convective vortices during stellar collapse. Using linear hydrodynamics equations, we study the evolution of the vortices from their initial radii in convective shells down to smaller radii where they are expected to encounter the supernova shock. We find that the evolution of vortices is mainly governed by two effects: the acceleration of infall and the accompanying speed up of rotation. The former effect leads to the radial stretching of vortices, which limits the vortex velocities. The latter effect leads to the angular deformation of vortices in the direction of rotation, amplifying their non-radial velocity. We show that the radial velocities of the vortices are not significantly affected by rotation. We study acoustic wave emission and find that it is not sensitive to rotation. Finally, we analyze the impact of the corotation point and find that it has a small impact on the overall acoustic wave emission.
Hot luminous stars show a variety of phenomena in their photospheres and winds which still lack clear physical explanation. Among these phenomena are photospheric turbulence, line profile variability (LPV), non-thermal emission, non-radial pulsations, discrete absorption components (DACs) and wind clumping. Cantiello et al. (2009) argued that a convection zone close to the stellar surface could be responsible for some of these phenomena. This convective zone is caused by a peak in the opacity associated with iron-group elements and is referred to as the iron convection zone (FeCZ). Assuming dynamo action producing magnetic fields at equipartition in the FeCZ, we investigate the occurrence of subsurface magnetism in OB stars. Then we study the surface emergence of these magnetic fields and discuss possible observational signatures of magnetic spots. Simple estimates are made using the subsurface properties of massive stars, as calculated in 1D stellar evolution models. We find that magnetic fields of sufficient amplitude to affect the wind could emerge at the surface via magnetic buoyancy. While at this stage it is difficult to predict the geometry of these features, we show that magnetic spots of size comparable to the local pressure scale height can manifest themselves as hot, bright spots. Localized magnetic fields could be widespread in those early type stars that have subsurface convection. This type of surface magnetism could be responsible for photometric variability and play a role in X-ray emission and wind clumping.
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