Stellar flares, winds and coronal mass ejections form the space weather. They are signatures of the magnetic activity of cool stars and, since activity varies with age, mass and rotation, the space weather that extra-solar planets experience can be v
ery different from the one encountered by the solar system planets. How do stellar activity and magnetism influence the space weather of exoplanets orbiting main-sequence stars? How do the environments surrounding exoplanets differ from those around the planets in our own solar system? How can the detailed knowledge acquired by the solar system community be applied in exoplanetary systems? How does space weather affect habitability? These were questions that were addressed in the splinter session Cool stars and Space Weather, that took place on 9 Jun 2014, during the Cool Stars 18 meeting. In this paper, we present a summary of the contributions made to this session.
We investigate how the observed large-scale surface magnetic fields of low-mass stars (~0.1 -- 2 Msun), reconstructed through Zeeman-Doppler imaging (ZDI), vary with age t, rotation and X-ray emission. Our sample consists of 104 magnetic maps of 73 s
tars, from accreting pre-main sequence to main-sequence objects (1 Myr < t < 10 Gyr). For non-accreting dwarfs we empirically find that the unsigned average large-scale surface field <|Bv|> is related to age as $t^{-0.655 pm 0.045}$. This relation has a similar dependence to that identified by Skumanich (1972), used as the basis for gyrochronology. Likewise, our relation could be used as an age-dating method (magnetochronology). The trends with rotation we find for the large-scale stellar magnetism are consistent with the trends found from Zeeman broadening measurements (sensitive to large- and small-scale fields). These similarities indicate that the fields recovered from both techniques are coupled to each other, suggesting that small- and large-scale fields could share the same dynamo field generation processes. For the accreting objects, fewer statistically significant relations are found, with one being a correlation between the unsigned magnetic flux and rotation period. We attribute this to a signature of star-disc interaction, rather than being driven by the dynamo.
We perform three-dimensional numerical simulations of stellar winds of early-M dwarf stars. Our simulations incorporate observationally reconstructed large-scale surface magnetic maps, suggesting that the complexity of the magnetic field can play an
important role in the angular momentum evolution of the star, possibly explaining the large distribution of periods in field dM stars, as reported in recent works. In spite of the diversity of the magnetic field topologies among the stars in our sample, we find that stellar wind flowing near the (rotational) equatorial plane carries most of the stellar angular momentum, but there is no preferred colatitude contributing to mass loss, as the mass flux is maximum at different colatitudes for different stars. We find that more non-axisymmetric magnetic fields result in more asymmetric mass fluxes and wind total pressures $p_{rm tot}$ (defined as the sum of thermal, magnetic and ram pressures). Because planetary magnetospheric sizes are set by pressure equilibrium between the planets magnetic field and $p_{rm tot}$, variations of up to a factor of $3$ in $p_{rm tot}$ (as found in the case of a planet orbiting at several stellar radii away from the star) lead to variations in magnetospheric radii of about 20 percent along the planetary orbital path. In analogy to the flux of cosmic rays that impact the Earth, which is inversely modulated with the non-axisymmetric component of the total open solar magnetic flux, we conclude that planets orbiting M dwarf stars like DT~Vir, DS~Leo and GJ~182, which have significant non-axisymmetric field components, should be the more efficiently shielded from galactic cosmic rays, even if the planets lack a protective thick atmosphere/large magnetosphere of their own.
Tau Boo is an intriguing planet-host star that is believed to undergo magnetic cycles similar to the Sun, but with a duration that is about one order of magnitude smaller than that of the solar cycle. With the use of observationally derived surface m
agnetic field maps, we simulate the magnetic stellar wind of Tau Boo by means of three-dimensional MHD numerical simulations. As the properties of the stellar wind depend on the particular characteristics of the stellar magnetic field, we show that the wind varies during the observed epochs of the cycle. Although the mass loss-rates we find (~2.7e-12 Msun/yr) vary less than 3 per cent during the observed epochs of the cycle, our derived angular momentum loss-rates vary from 1.1 to 2.2e32erg. The spin-down times associated to magnetic braking range between 39 and 78Gyr. We also compute the emission measure from the (quiescent) closed corona and show that it remains approximately constant through these epochs at a value of ~10^{50.6} cm^{-3}. This suggests that a magnetic cycle of Tau Boo may not be detected by X-ray observations. We further investigate the interaction between the stellar wind and the planet by estimating radio emission from the hot-Jupiter that orbits at 0.0462 au from Tau Boo. By adopting reasonable hypotheses, we show that, for a planet with a magnetic field similar to Jupiter (~14G at the pole), the radio flux is estimated to be about 0.5-1 mJy, occurring at a frequency of 34MHz. If the planet is less magnetised (field strengths roughly <4G), detection of radio emission from the ground is unfeasible due to the Earths ionospheric cutoff. According to our estimates, if the planet is more magnetised than that and provided the emission beam crosses the observer line-of-sight, detection of radio emission from Tau Boo b is only possible by ground-based instruments with a noise level of < 1 mJy, operating at low frequencies.
Bow shocks can be formed around planets due to their interaction with the coronal medium of the host stars. The net velocity of the particles impacting on the planet determines the orientation of the shock. At the Earths orbit, the (mainly radial) so
lar wind is primarily responsible for the formation of a shock facing towards the Sun. However, for close-in planets that possess high Keplerian velocities and are frequently located at regions where the host stars wind is still accelerating, a shock may develop ahead of the planet. If the compressed material is able to absorb stellar radiation, then the signature of bow shocks may be observed during transits. Bow-shock models have been investigated in a series of papers (Vidotto et al. 2010, 2011,a,b; Llama et al. 2011) for known transiting systems. Once the signature of a bow-shock is observed, one can infer the magnetic field intensity of the transiting planet. Here, we investigate the potential to use this model to detect magnetic fields of (hypothetical) planets orbiting inside the habitable zone of M-dwarf stars. For these cases, we show, by means of radiative transfer simulations, that the detection of bow-shocks of planets surrounding M-dwarf stars may be more difficult than for the case of close-in giant planets orbiting solar-type stars.
Recently, surface magnetic field maps had been acquired for a small sample of active M dwarfs, showing that fully convective stars (spectral types ~M4 and later) host intense (~kG), mainly axi-symmetrical poloidal fields. In particular, the rapidly r
otating M dwarf V374Peg (M4), believed to lie near the theoretical full convection threshold, presents a stable magnetic topology on a time-scale of 1 yr. The rapid rotation of V374Peg (P=0.44 days) along with its intense magnetic field point toward a magneto-centrifugally acceleration of a coronal wind. In this work, we aim at investigating the structure of the coronal magnetic field in the M dwarf V374Peg by means of three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) numerical simulations of the coronal wind. For the first time, an observationally derived surface magnetic field map is implemented in MHD models of stellar winds for a low-mass star. We self-consistently take into consideration the interaction of the outflowing wind with the magnetic field and vice versa. Hence, from the interplay between magnetic forces and wind forces, we are able to determine the configuration of the magnetic field and the structure of the coronal winds. Our results enable us to evaluate the angular momentum loss of the rapidly rotating M dwarf V374Peg.
The rapid rotation (P=0.44 d) of the M dwarf V374Peg (M4) along with its intense magnetic field point toward magneto-centrifugal acceleration of a coronal wind. In this work, we investigate the structure of the wind of V374Peg by means of 3D magnetoh
ydrodynamical (MHD) numerical simulations. For the first time, an observationally derived surface magnetic field map is implemented in MHD models of stellar winds for a low mass star. We show that the wind of V374Peg deviates greatly from a low-velocity, low-mass-loss rate solar-type wind. We find general scaling relations for the terminal velocities, mass-loss rates, and spin-down times of highly magnetized M dwarfs. In particular, for V374Peg, our models show that terminal velocities across a range of stellar latitudes reach ~(1500-2300) n_{12}^{-1/2} km/s, where n_{12} is the coronal wind base density in units of 10^{12} cm^{-3}, while the mass-loss rates are about 4 x 10^{-10} n_{12}^{1/2} Msun/yr. We also evaluate the angular-momentum loss of V374Peg, which presents a rotational braking timescale ~28 n_{12}^{-1/2} Myr. Compared to observationally derived values from period distributions of stars in open clusters, this suggests that V374Peg may have low coronal base densities (< 10^{11} cm^{-3}). We show that the wind ram pressure of V374Peg is about 5 orders of magnitude larger than for the solar wind. Nevertheless, a small planetary magnetic field intensity (~ 0.1G) is able to shield a planet orbiting at 1 AU against the erosive effects of the stellar wind. However, planets orbiting inside the habitable zone of V374Peg, where the wind ram pressure is higher, might be facing a more significant atmospheric erosion. In that case, higher planetary magnetic fields of, at least, about half the magnetic field intensity of Jupiter, are required to protect the planets atmosphere.
By means of numerical simulations, we investigate magnetized stellar winds of pre-main-sequence stars. In particular we analyze under which circumstances these stars will present elongated magnetic features (e.g., helmet streamers, slingshot prominen
ces, etc). We focus on weak-lined T Tauri stars, as the presence of the tenuous accretion disk is not expected to have strong influence on the structure of the stellar wind. We show that the plasma-beta parameter (the ratio of thermal to magnetic energy densities) is a decisive factor in defining the magnetic configuration of the stellar wind. Using initial parameters within the observed range for these stars, we show that the coronal magnetic field configuration can vary between a dipole-like configuration and a configuration with strong collimated polar lines and closed streamers at the equator (multi-component configuration for the magnetic field). We show that elongated magnetic features will only be present if the plasma-beta parameter at the coronal base is beta<<1. Using our self-consistent 3D MHD model, we estimate for these stellar winds the time-scale of planet migration due to drag forces exerted by the stellar wind on a hot-Jupiter. In contrast to the findings of Lovelace et al. (2008), who estimated such time-scales using the Weber & Davis model, our model suggests that the stellar wind of these multi-component coronae are not expected to have significant influence on hot-Jupiters migration. Further simulations are necessary to investigate this result under more intense surface magnetic field strengths (~2-3 kG) and higher coronal base densities, as well as in a tilted stellar magnetosphere.
