A&A 386, 606-614 (2002)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20011834
Z. E. Musielak1,2 - P. Ulmschneider2
1 - Department of Physics, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX 76019, USA
2 -
Institut für Theoretische Astrophysik der Universität Heidelberg, Tiergartenstr. 15, 69121 Heidelberg, Germany
Received 4 July 2001 / Accepted 20 December 2001
Abstract
The wave energy spectra and fluxes for transverse magnetic tube
waves generated in stellar convection zones are computed by using
the analytical method developed in the previous paper of this
series. The main physical process responsible for the generation
of these waves is shaking of a thin and vertically oriented
magnetic flux tube by the external turbulent convection. The
approach includes the correlation effects, which occur when
the tube is shaken over a significant fraction of its length,
but is limited to linear waves. The calculations are performed
for population I stars with effective temperatures ranging from
= 2000 K to 10000 K, and with gravities log g = 3-5.
It is shown that the fluxes carried by linear transverse waves
along a single flux tube are approximately one order
of magnitude higher than those carried by linear longitudinal
tube waves. The obtained results can be used to construct
theoretical models of stellar chromospheres and winds.
Key words: methods: analytical - stars: chromospheres - stars: coronae - stars: magnetic fields - MHD - waves
To identify the basic physical processes that are responsible for the observed stellar chromospheric and wind activity (e.g., Linsky 1980; Schrijver 1987; Rutten et al. 1991; Linsky 1991; Baliunas et al. 1996; Jordan 1997), we have constructed theoretical and time-dependent models of stellar chromospheres (Cuntz et al. 1998, 1999; Ulmschneider et al. 2001a) and winds (Ong et al. 1997). These models require the initial wave energy fluxes to be specified at the atmospheric height where the calculations begin: the bottom of the chromosphere or the wind base. We have calculated the energy fluxes carried by acoustic waves (Musielak et al. 1994; Ulmschneider et al. 1996, 1999) and longitudinal tube waves (Musielak et al. 1989, 1995; Ulmschneider & Musielak 1998; Musielak et al. 2000; Ulmschneider et al. 2001b) and used them to construct our stellar chromospheric models. The amount of energy carried by transverse tube waves has been added ad hoc in these models (see Ulmschneider et al. 2001a). Similarly, the amount of energy carried by transverse waves at the wind base has also been assumed in our wind models (see also MacGregor & Charbonneau 1994; Lau & Siregar 1996; and Ofman & Davila 1998). Clearly, detailed calculations of the efficiency of the generation of transverse tube waves in stellar convection zones are required and this is the main goal of the present paper.
Some attempts have been made to estimate the amount of energy carried by transverse tube waves in the solar atmosphere. Some authors have based their estimates on observational data (Muller et al. 1994), others have used analytical (Choudhuri et al. 1993a,b) or numerical (Huang et al. 1995) methods. The main conclusion is that transverse waves are generated 30 or even 40 times more efficiently than longitudinal waves; the fact that it is much easier to generate transverse tube waves than longitudinal ones has already been recognized by Spruit & Roberts (1983). Hence, there is a lot of extra wave energy that is not formally accounted for in our current theoretical models (see, however, Ulmschneider et al. 2001a).
On the other hand, it is currently unknown how efficiently this energy can be deposited in the solar chromosphere. The main physical process responsible for dissipation of these waves is their nonlinear coupling to longitudinal tube waves. This process may become important in higher atmospheric layers, where the wave amplitudes are large enough for the nonlinear effect to take place, and its efficiency has been studied by Ulmschneider et al. (1991). In addition, the work done by Huang (1996), Wu et al. (1996), Ziegler & Ulmschneider (1997a,b) and Huang et al. (1999) has shown that some fraction of the energy carried by transverse tube waves is always lost due to the energy leakage to the external medium. Note that this leakage depends on the filling factor. Higher up in the chromosphere, there is little or no external atmosphere left and leakage is counterbalanced by gains from neighboring flux tubes. Clearly, detailed three dimensional calculations of the propagation of these waves are needed, however, this is beyond the scope of the present paper.
In the previous paper of this series (Musielak & Ulmschneider 2001, hereafter called Paper I), we have developed a general analytical approach that describes the interaction between a single magnetic flux tube and the external turbulent motions. The tube is embedded in a non-magnetic medium and is assumed to be thin and oriented vertically. Its interaction with the external turbulence, which is considered to be subsonic and known a priori, is assumed to be weak enough so that only linear transverse tube waves are generated. The most efficient excitation of these waves takes place in the upper layers of stellar convection zones, where the existing turbulent motions are the most vigorous. The waves leave the region of generation as freely propagating and purely transverse waves that are not coupled to longitudinal tube waves.
In Paper I, we have derived general
formulae for the wave energy spectra and fluxes carried by transverse tube
waves by using a 3-D description of turbulence originally introduced by
Musielak et al. (1994). In this description, the spatial component of the
turbulent convection is represented by an extended Kolmogorov turbulent
energy spectrum and its temporal component by a modified Gaussian frequency
factor. We now use the results of Paper I to compute the transverse tube
wave energy spectra and fluxes generated in convection zones of population
I stars with effective temperatures ranging from
= 2000 K to 10000 K, and with gravities in the range: log g = 3-5. While performing the
calculations, we have carefully identified those regimes where our current
model cannot be applied because of the failure of the small Mach number
approximation (see Ulmschneider et al. 2001b and their Fig. 1). The obtained
spectra and fluxes can be used to explain the enhanced heating observed in
magnetized regions of stellar atmospheres (Narain & Ulmschneider 1990, 1996)
and, as already mentioned above, to construct theoretical models of stellar
chromospheres and winds.
To perform our calculations, we must assume that magnetic flux tubes on other late-type stars are similar to those observed on the Sun (e.g., Solanki 1993, and references therein). This seems to be a reasonable assumption based on the fact that our Sun is not unique among the stars of its category. The problem is, however, that the physical properties of stellar magnetic flux tubes cannot currently be determined by observations (Saar 1996; Rüedi et al. 1997), which means that we have to use solar observations to establish, for example, the range of field strengths in stellar magnetic flux tubes (see Sect. 2).
Solar observations have to be also used to determine the detailed structure of magnetic flux tubes, especially their rate of expansion in the upper atmospheric layers. The latter is of great importance for the propagation and dissipation of the wave energy in the solar and stellar atmospheres (e.g., Herbold et al. 1985; Ulmschneider et al. 1991; Fawzy et al. 1998; Cuntz et al. 1998; Huang et al. 1999) but does not effect the efficiency of the wave generation in stellar convection zones (see Sect. 3). Our paper is organized as follows: a brief summary of the theoretical results obtained in Paper I is given in Sect. 2; the wave energy spectra and fluxes calculated for late-type stars are presented and discussed in Sect. 3; our conclusions are given in Sect. 4.
In this section, we give a very brief summary of the most important results of Paper I and present the basic formula used in this paper to compute the wave energy spectra and fluxes for late-type stars.
We consider a magnetic flux tube embedded in a non-magnetized
stellar convection zone, and assume that this tube is thin (its
diameter is approximately equal to the local scale height) and
circular, and that there are no longitudinal flows inside the tube.
To describe the interaction of this tube with the external turbulent
convection, we use the set of linearized MHD equations and the
horizontal pressure balance across the interface separating the
magnetized and non-magnetized medium. The inhomogeneous wave
equation that describes the transverse oscillations of the tube
resulting from the external turbulent motions can be written in
the following form:
![]() |
(1) |
![]() |
(2) |
![]() |
(3) |
![]() |
(4) |
![]() |
(5) |
![]() |
(6) |
Note that there are three small printing errors in Paper I: on
the RHS of Eqs. (15) and (19) the gas density
is without
the subscript "o'' and, in addition, the power of
in Eq. (15) should be +1/4; these errors have been corrected
in this paper - see Eqs. (1) and (4).
The obtained inhomogeneous wave equation is solved by performing
the Fourier transforms in time and space, and then evaluating
asymptotic values of these transforms. The final expression for
the mean wave energy generation rate per unit frequency [in units
of erg cm-2 s-1 Hz-1] can be written in the following
form:
![]() |
(7) |
![]() |
(8) |
![]() |
(9) |
![]() |
(10) |
![]() |
(11) |
![]() |
(12) |
![]() |
(13) |
All wave energy spectra calculated in this paper are obtained
by using Eq. (7) with the extended Kolmogorov energy spectrum
(Eq. (10)) and the modified Gaussian frequency factor (Eq. (13)).
The wave energy fluxes,
[in units of erg cm-2 s-1],
are computed by integrating the spectra over the wave frequency
domain.
In this paper, we present the wave energy spectra and fluxes
for a single magnetic flux tube embedded in the
convection zone of late-type stars of different effective
temperatures (
)
and gravities (g). This means that
the filling factor, representing the number of magnetic flux
tubes per unit area of the stellar surface, will not be
discussed here.
The basic formula describing the efficiency of the generation of
transverse tube waves in stellar convection zones is given by Eq. (7). We need to know the structure of the background medium outside
and inside the tube embedded in an atmosphere of a star of given
and g. To calculate the structure of the external
non-magnetized medium that surrounds the tube, we use a version
of stellar envelope computer code described by Bohn (1984)
and later modified by Theurer (1993) and Ulmschneider et al. (1996).
The code is based on the mixing-length description of convection,
takes into account the formation of hydrogen molecules, and treats
radiation transport in the gray LTE approximation; for discussion
of the validity of this approximation see Musielak et al. (1994)
and Ulmschneider et al. (1999).
To run the code, we must specify
,
g, and the mixing-length parameter
=
/H,
where
is the mixing-length. A value of
seems
to be indicated by time-dependent hydrodynamic simulations of stellar
convection (see, for example, Steffen 1992; Trampedach et al. 1997)
as well as by a careful fitting of evolutionary tracks of the Sun
with its present luminosity, effective temperature and age (Hünsch
& Schröder 1997; Schröder & Eggleton 1996). Most results
presented in this paper are obtained for
= 2 but we have
also calculated the wave energy fluxes for
= 1 and 1.5 for
comparison (see Sect. 3.2).
For a given value of
,
the code gives a model of a stellar
convection zone, and convective velocity in this model is identified
with the turbulence velocity
used in Eq. (10). As already shown
by Musielak et al. (2000, see their Fig. 1), there is a small range of
for which the convective velocity becomes comparable (for
stars with log g = 4) to, or even higher (for stars with log g = 3)
than, the local sound speed. Note that our analytical method of the
generation of transverse tube waves can only be used with confidence
when the convective velocities are lower than the local sound speed.
We give special attention to this problem in Sect. 3.3.
To calculate the distribution of physical parameters with depth
inside the tube, we need to specify the strength of the magnetic
field of the tube. The results obtained in Paper I showed that the
efficiency of the generation of transverse tube waves is sensitive to
the magnetic field strength in the tube and increases when the field
strength decreases (see Fig. 3 in Paper I). Hence, the problem of
choosing the correct magnetic field strength of the tube is important
and it is unfortunate that its value can neither be determined from
observations nor from numerical computations. However, based on the
solar observations it is known that the field strength inside magnetic
flux tubes is
= 1500 G (e.g., Solanki 1993), which corresponds
to
= 0.85
with
being the equipartition field.
For late-type stars considered in this paper, we take three different
values of the magnetic field strength, namely,
/
= 0.75,
0.85 and 0.95, and calculate both the wave energy spectra and the
corresponding fluxes for all these values. Note that the field strength
inside stellar magnetic flux tubes is specified at the atmospheric
depth corresponding to
= 1, and its increase with depth
is determined by the horizontal pressure balance (see Paper I).
![]() |
Figure 1:
Transverse wave energy spectra are plotted for
three different stellar convection zones models obtained
with the mixing-length parameter |
| Open with DEXTER | |
The wave energy spectra for transverse tube waves generated in stellar
convection zones are calculated by using Eq. (7) and the convection zone
models described in the previous subsection. Since this equation is only
valid for the propagating waves, we assume that the wave frequency domain
extends from 1.002
to 57
.
To compute the wave energy
fluxes, we perform the Laguerre integration of Eq. (7) over
by using 32 points within the frequency domain. We begin our presentation
of the obtained results by showing the dependence of the calculated wave
energy spectra and fluxes on the parameter
and the magnetic
field strength
for a chosen star.
![]() |
Figure 2:
Transverse wave energy spectra are plotted for
three different values of the magnetic field strength at
|
| Open with DEXTER | |
| 1.0 | 0.85 |
|
| 1.5 | 0.85 |
|
| 2.0 | 0.85 |
|
| 2.0 | 0.75 |
|
| 2.0 | 0.95 |
|
The dependence of the wave energy spectra on the mixing-length
parameter
is shown in Fig. 1. The presented results
were obtained for a star with
= 6000 K, log g = 4
and
= 0.85
,
and for
= 1, 1.5 and 2.
Since the convective velocities increase with
,
the
amount of wave energy generated for a given frequency also
increases. As seen in Fig. 1, the shape of the calculated
spectrum does not change much with
.
The maximum of
the spectrum computed with
= 1 is near the cutoff
frequency for these waves, and for higher values of
shifts toward higher frequencies.
We also computed the wave energy spectra for the same star with
= 2 but considered three different cases:
/
= 0.75, 0.85 and 0.95. The obtained results are plotted in Fig. 2.
It is seen that all spectra have similar shapes but their maxima
are shifted toward higher frequencies for stronger magnetic field
strength; this effect is caused by the dependence of the cutoff
frequency on the magnetic field strength (see Eq. (3)). This
decrease of the total wave energy flux with increasing field
strength
/
is caused by increasing stiffness of the
tube against external perturbations; a more detailed discussion
of this effect is given in Paper I as well as in our two previous
papers (Musielak et al. 2000; Ulmschneider et al. 2001b).
![]() |
Figure 3:
Transverse wave energy spectra are plotted for stars
of different spectral types and log g = 5. The presented
results were obtained by taking the mixing-length parameter
|
| Open with DEXTER | |
The dependence of the computed wave energy fluxes on the mixing-length
parameter,
,
is given in Table 1. Based on these results,
we find that the dependence of
on
can be
approximated by
![]() |
(14) |
![]() |
Figure 4: Same as Fig. 3 but for log g = 4. |
| Open with DEXTER | |
Table 1 also shows that the total wave
energy flux FT decreases with increasing magnetic field
strength
.
The dependence of FT on B can
approximately be fitted by the following expression:
![]() |
(15) |
![]() |
Figure 5: Same as Fig. 3 but for log g = 3. |
| Open with DEXTER | |
Typical stellar wave energy spectra calculated for stars of
different spectral types but similar gravity are shown in Figs. 3-5. All spectra were computed by taking
= 2
and
/
= 0.85. By comparing the spectra obtained
for stars with different gravities, one may draw four general
conclusions. First, for a given gravity the amount of energy
carried by transverse tube waves of the same frequency is much
higher for hot stars than for cool ones; this can easily be
explained by the higher convective velocities in hot than in
cool stars. Second, the shapes of the computed spectra seem to
be similar for stars of different gravity with the exception
of three cases plotted as dashed lines in Figs. 4 and 5. These
cases represent spectra obtained with the turbulent velocities
comparable to (or even higher than) the local sound speed, which
means that they are not realistic because our theory is only valid
for subsonic turbulent motions. Third, all spectra peak at the
low frequency limit. While being relatively flat at high
,
they become much steeper towards lower
.
The effect can
be explained by the dependence of the cutoff frequency,
and the factor
on the tube magnetic
field and the scale height in different stars; this factor was
introduced in Paper I to remove non-propagating waves from the
computed wave energy spectra. Fourth, the transverse wave energy
spectra extend roughly over one to two orders of magnitude above
the cut-off frequency. Finally, it is interesting to note that
all above conclusions (expect the last one) are very similar to
those reached by Musielak et al. (2000) for the generation of
longitudinal tube waves.
![]() |
Figure 6:
Transverse wave energy fluxes computed
for stars of different spectral types are plotted for
three different values of the mixing-length parameter
|
| Open with DEXTER | |
![]() |
Figure 7:
Transverse wave energy fluxes computed
for stars of different spectral types are plotted for
three different values of the magnetic field strength:
B = |
| Open with DEXTER | |
The dependence of the calculated fluxes on the mixing-length
parameter
and the magnetic field strength,
for
late-type stars of different
and log g = 4
is shown in Figs. 6 and 7, respectively. Figure 6 shows
that the wave energy flux increases with increasing
and that the increase is especially prominent for stars with
6000 K. For
7500 K the dependence
of the wave energy fluxes on
increases with
increasing
.
These effects are due to the increase of the
convective velocity with
and
.
In Fig. 7 it
is seen that the wave energy flux increases with decreasing
magnetic field strength and stars of different
are equally affected by this effect. As noted above this is
due to the decreasing stiffness of the tube for smaller
/
.
Figure 8 shows the total wave energy fluxes computed for late-type
stars of different gravities and effective temperatures; all results
presented in this figure were obtained by taking
= 2 and
/
= 0.85. The rising part of the flux curves at the
left-hand side of this figure indicates that the efficiency of
stellar convection strongly increases in these hot stars. For lower
gravity this rise shifts to lower
because giants have lower
gas pressures at their surfaces, which permits the onset of hydrogen
ionization and thus the efficient convection occurs at lower
temperatures. Except for these parts of the diagram, it is seen
that the stars with lower gravities but identical
generate
more transverse wave energy. In addition for given gravity, the
transverse wave energy fluxes are seen to increase rapidly with greater
.
The maximum wave fluxes are similar for stars of different
gravities and occur for the hottest stars (A to early F-stars) just
before stellar convection becomes inefficient towards higher effective
temperature. Some selected total transverse wave energy fluxes for
late-type stars are also given in Table 2.
![]() |
Figure 8:
Transverse wave energy fluxes computed
for stars of different spectral types and different
gravities. The fluxes were obtained for the
mixing-length parameter |
| Open with DEXTER | |
| log g |
|
|
| 5.0 | 3000 |
|
| 5.0 | 5000 |
|
| 5.0 | 7000 |
|
| 5.0 | 9000 |
|
| 4.0 | 3000 |
|
| 4.0 | 5000 |
|
| 4.0 | 7000 |
|
| 4.0 | 9000 |
|
| 3.0 | 3000 |
|
| 3.0 | 5000 |
|
| 3.0 | 7000 |
|
According to Muller (1989) and Muller et al. (1994), the amount of wave energy generated by the observed proper motions of footpoints of magnetic flux tubes in the solar photosphere is large enough to account for the observed radiative losses from the outer layers of the solar atmosphere. Analytical methods have been used by Choudhuri et al. (1993a,b) to investigate the efficiency of excitation of transverse tube waves by rapid foot point motions of magnetic flux tubes. They argue that occasional rapid motions can account for the entire energy flux needed to heat the quiet regions of the solar corona. Their main finding is that pulses are more efficient in supplying the energy to the solar corona than continuously excited tube waves.
Numerical results obtained by Huang et al. (1995) have shown that the efficiency of generation of nonlinear transverse waves at the top of the solar convection zone is high and that the amount of energy carried by these waves (approximately 109 erg/cm2 s) is comparable to that estimated by Muller et al. (1994) based on their observational data.
In Paper I we found that the transverse wave energy flux for the Sun is approximately 108 erg/cm2 s, which is one order of magnitude lower than numerically evaluated fluxes. The main reason for this difference is that our analytical approach does not allow for large amplitude motions observed on the Sun at the photospheric level (Muller 1989; Nesis et al. 1992; Muller et al. 1994) and also seen in time-dependent numerical simulations of solar convection (e.g., Nordlund & Dravins 1990; Nordlund & Stein 1991; Cattaneo et al. 1991; Steffen 1993; see also Nordlund et al. 1997). In addition, the analytical approach includes the correlation effects, which occur when the tube is shaken over a significant portion of its length, and are likely to reduce the efficiency of the generation of transverse tube waves.
Since there are no other calculations of transverse wave energy fluxes
for late-type stars, we now compare the computed fluxes to previously
calculated stellar wave energy fluxes carried by longitudinal tube
waves. We begin with a comparison with the results obtained by Musielak
et al. (2000), who used a similar analytical method to calculate (linear) longitudinal wave energy spectra and fluxes for stars with the
same physical parameters as those considered in this paper. The comparison
is given in Fig. 9. It shows that the energy carried by transverse tube
waves is more than one order of magnitude larger than that carried by
longitudinal tube waves. This conclusion is valid independently of
,
with the tendency that the difference between the two fluxes is larger for
cool stars. The obtained results are consistent with those given in Paper I for the Sun.
Finally, we compare our results with the numerical longitudinal
wave energy fluxes of Ulmschneider et al. (2001b), who used an
approach developed by Ulmschneider & Musielak (1998). These fluxes
were obtained for late-type stars with
ranging from
3500 K to 7000 K and gravities in the range log g = 3-5 (see Fig. 9).
In their approach, the pressure fluctuations produced by the external
turbulent motions are responsible for the generation of longitudinal
tube waves. The fluctuations are described by a superposition of many
partial waves with amplitudes determined by the turbulent flow and
with random phases. Occasionally, this superposition produces large
amplitudes fluctuations which excite nonlinear longitudinal wave
pulses.
![]() |
Figure 9:
Comparison between transverse and longitudinal
wave energy fluxes computed for stars of different spectral
types and log g = 4. The fluxes were obtained for the
mixing-length parameter |
| Open with DEXTER | |
Clearly, the fluxes carried by nonlinear longitudinal tube waves are not only higher than those carried by linear longitudinal tube waves but they are also higher than the transverse wave energy fluxes calculated in this paper (see Fig. 9). The main reason for these differences is the fact that the analytical methods are restricted to linear waves and, in addition, they take into account the correlation effects, which significantly reduce the computed fluxes. As a result, the analytically calculated wave energy fluxes must be regarded as only lower bounds for the realistic amount of the wave energy generated in stellar convection zones.
From our analytical studies of the generation of transverse tube waves propagating along a single magnetic flux tube embedded in atmospheres of different late-type stars, the following conclusions can be drawn.
1. The shapes of the computed wave energy spectra are similar for stars of different effective temperatures and gravities.
2. The spectra are not very sensitive
to the strength of stellar magnetic fields but they do
depend on the mixing-length parameter
.
The maxima of the spectra for
= 1 are
near the cutoff frequency for transverse tube waves, while
for
= 2 they are a factor of two higher.
3. For higher values of the mixing-length parameter
,
the total wave energy fluxes significantly increase
and this effect is more prominent for hot stars than for cool
ones. Increasing the magnetic field strength decreases these
fluxes.
4. For stars with efficient convection, that is later than early F-stars, the total wave energy fluxes increase with higher effective temperature and with lower gravity. The maximum generated wave energies are similar for all gravities, and they occur in the range of the early F-stars.
5. Due to our analytical approach the obtained linear transverse wave energy fluxes are likely to represent only lower bounds for the realistic transverse wave energy fluxes generated in stellar atmospheres.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by NSF under grant ATM-0087184 (Z.E.M. and P.U.), by the DFG grant Ul57/25-3, and by NATO under grant CRG-910058 (P.U. and Z.E.M.). Z.E.M. also acknowledges the support of this work by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.