Issue |
A&A
Volume 660, April 2022
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A141 | |
Number of page(s) | 12 | |
Section | Stellar atmospheres | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201936780 | |
Published online | 02 May 2022 |
Topological changes in the magnetic field of LQ Hya during an activity minimum★,★★
1
Finnish Centre for Astronomy with ESO (FINCA), University of Turku,
Vesilinnantie 5,
20014
University of Turku,
Finland
e-mail: lehtinen.jyri@gmail.com
2
Department of Physics,
PO Box 64,
00014,
University of Helsinki,
Finland
3
Department of Computer Science, Aalto University,
PO Box 15400,
00076
Aalto,
Finland
4
Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research,
Justus-von-Liebig-Weg, 3,
37077
Göttingen,
Germany
5
Nordita, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Stockholm University,
Hannes Alfvéns väg 12,
10691
Stockholm,
Sweden
6
Department Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University,
Box 516,
751 20
Uppsala,
Sweden
7
University of Southern Queensland, Centre for Astrophysics,
Toowoomba,
QLD 4350,
Australia
8
Center of Excellence in Information Systems, Tennessee State University,
Nashville,
TN
37209,
USA
Received:
24
September
2019
Accepted:
29
December
2020
Aims. Previous studies have related surface temperature maps, obtained with the Doppler imaging (DI) technique, of LQ Hya with long-term photometry. Here, we compare surface magnetic field maps, obtained with the Zeeman Doppler imaging (ZDI) technique, with contemporaneous photometry, with the aim of quantifying the star’s magnetic cycle characteristics.
Methods. We inverted Stokes IV spectropolarimetry, obtained with the HARPSpol and ESPaDOnS instruments, into magnetic field and surface brightness maps using a tomographic inversion code that models high signal-to-noise ratio mean line profiles produced by the least squares deconvolution (LSD) technique. The maps were compared against long-term ground-based photometry acquired with the T3 0.40 m Automatic Photoelectric Telescope (APT) at Fairborn Observatory, which offers a proxy for the spot cycle of the star, as well as with chromospheric Ca II H&K activity derived from the observed spectra.
Results. The magnetic field and surface brightness maps reveal similar patterns relative to previous DI and ZDI studies: non-axisymmetric polar magnetic field structure, void of fields at mid-latitudes, and a complex structure in the equatorial regions. There is a weak but clear tendency of the polar structures to be linked with a strong radial field and the equatorial ones with the azimuthal field. We find a polarity reversal in the radial field between 2016 and 2017 that is coincident with a spot minimum seen in the long-term photometry, although the precise relation of chromospheric activity to the spot activity remains complex and unclear. The inverted field strengths cannot be easily related with the observed spottedness, but we find that they are partially connected to the retrieved field complexity.
Conclusions. This field topology and the dominance of the poloidal field component, when compared to global magnetoconvection models for rapidly rotating young suns, could be explained by a turbulent dynamo, where differential rotation does not play a major role (so-called 2 or 2 dynamos) and axi- and non-axisymmetric modes are excited simultaneously. The complex equatorial magnetic field structure could arise from the twisted (helical) wreaths often seen in these simulations, while the polar feature would be connected to the mostly poloidal non-axisymmetric component that has a smooth spatial structure.
Key words: polarization / stars: activity / stars: imaging / starspots
The Johnson B- and V-band differential photometry and the numerical time series analysis results are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/660/A141
© ESO 2022
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