Discovery of a weak magnetic field in the photosphere of the single giant Pollux^*

¹ Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Toulouse- Tarbes, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, 57 Avenue d'Azereix, 65000 Tarbes, France e-mail: michel.auriere@ast.obs-mip.fr
² Department of Physics, Royal Military College of Canada, PO Box 17000, Station “Forces”, Kingston, K7K 4B4 Ontario, Canada
³ Institute of Astronomy, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 72 Tsarigradsko shose, 1784 Sofia, Bulgaria
⁴ Geneva Observatory, University of Geneva, 51 Chemin des Maillettes, 1290 Versoix, Switzerland
⁵ LESIA-UMR8109, CNRS and Université Paris VII, 5 place Janssen, 92195 Meudon Cedex, France
⁶ Institut für Astronomie, Universität Wien, Türkenschanzstrasse 17, 1180 Wien, Austria
⁷ Institut d'Astrophysique, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Campus Plaine - C.P. 226, 1050 Bruxelles, Belgium
⁸ Armagh Observatory, College Hill, Armagh, BT619DG, Northern Ireland, UK

Received: 12 March 2009
Accepted: 6 July 2009

Abstract

Aims. We observe the nearby, weakly-active single giant, Pollux, in order to directly study and infer the nature of its magnetic field.

Methods. We used the new generation spectropolarimeters ESPaDOnS and NARVAL to observe and detect circular polarization within the photospheric absorption lines of Pollux. Our observations span 18 months from 2007–2009. We treated the spectropolarimetric data using the Least-Squares Deconvolution method to create high signal-to-noise ratio mean Stokes V profiles. We also measured the classical activity indicator S-index for the Ca ii H and K lines, and the stellar radial velocity (RV).

Results. We have unambiguously detected a weak Stokes V signal in the spectral lines of Pollux, and measured the related surface-averaged longitudinal magnetic field B_l. The longitudinal field averaged over the span of the observations is below one gauss. Our data suggest variations of the longitudinal magnetic field, but no significant variation of the S-index. We observe variations of RV which are qualitatively consistent with the published ephemeris for a proposed exoplanet orbiting Pollux. The observed variations of B_l appear to mimic those of RV, but additional data for this relationship to be established. Using evolutionary models including the effects of rotation, we derive the mass of Pollux and we discuss its evolutionary status and the origin of its magnetic field.

Conclusions. This work presents the first direct detection of the magnetic field of Pollux, and demonstrates that ESPaDOnS and NARVAL are capable of obtaining sub-G measurements of the surface-averaged longitudinal magnetic field of giant stars, and of directly studying the relationships between magnetic activity, stellar evolution and planet hosting of these stars.