Chromospheric activity in $\epsilon$ Eridani: results from theoretical wave studies

This work discusses theoretical models of chromospheric heating for \(\epsilon\) Eridani by shock waves. Self-consistent, nonlinear and time-dependent ab-initio numerical computations for the excitation of the atmosphere (i.e., arrays of flux tubes) are pursued based on waves generated in stellar convective zones. Based on previous studies the magnetic filling factor is estimated according to the stellar rotational period, although general models are described as well. The Ca II H+K fluxes are computed assuming partial redistribution (PRD). Time-dependent ionization notably affects the resulting Ca II fluxes, as expected. The emergent Ca II H+K fluxes are based on two-component models, consisting of a dominant magnetic component (as given by longitudinal tube waves) and a subordinate acoustic component. The Ca II fluxes as obtained are smaller by about a factor of 2 than those given by observations. Possible reasons for this discrepancy include (1) inherent limitations of our theoretical approach as it is based on 1-D rather than 3-D modelling and/or (2) the existence of additional heating processes in \(\epsilon\) Eridani (a young star) not included here.     

Dynamical processes in flux tabes and their role in chromospheric heating

We model the dynamical interaction between magnetic flux tubes and granules in the solar photosphere which leads to the excitation of transverse (kink) and longitudinal (sausage) tube waves. The investigation is motivated by the interpretation of network oscillations in terms of flux tube waves. The calculations show that for magnetic field strengths typical of the network, the energy flux in transverse waves is higher than in longitudinal waves by an order of magnitude. But for weaker fields, such as those that might be found in internetwork regions, the energy fluxes in the two modes are comparable. Using observations of footpoint motions, the energy flux in transverse waves is calculated and the implications for chromospheric heating are pointed out.     

The heating of solar magnetic flux tubes II. Nonadiabatic longitudinal tube waves

The formation of shocks and shock heating by radiatively damped longitudinal waves in solar magnetic flux tubes of different filling factors is studied. We consider three flux tubes of filling factors: 1%, 20%, and exponentially spreading which represent normal, enhanced network regions and the interior of supergranulation cells respectively. Monochromatic waves with periods 60 s and energy fluxes of 4.0 · 10⁸ erg cm^?2 s^?1 are assumed to propagate in the tubes. We find that the H^?-continuum losses and the Mg II line emission are much reduced in the tube of small filling factor while the mean temperatures are roughly similar in both tubes. The exponential flux tube shows little or no shock heating and no radiation damping. Shocks form earlier in the tube of high filling factor, and have larger strength.     

Magnetic activity optimal tracers: from radio to X-ray; the relevance of UV astronomy

Observations and analysis of magnetic activity phenomena in the atmospheres of cool stars—e.g., active regions, flares, stellar cycles—give insight into the fundamental processes in the heating of chromospheres, transition regions (TRs), and coronae. Diagnostics of magnetic activity can be found throughout the whole electromagnetic spectrum; from radio wavelengths, where gyrosynchrotron radiation arises from the quiescent and flaring corona, to optical, where important signatures are the Balmer lines and the Ca ii IRT and H&K lines, eventually to UV and X-rays, the latter mainly due to coronal thermal plasma. The UV and EUV ranges contains a plethora of emission lines that are powerful diagnostics for the warm (10?000 K) chromospheres, hot (100?000–800?000 K) TRs and very hot (1–10 MK) coronae. Also very weak coronal winds from cool stars have been identified and characterized thanks to high resolution UV spectra. Here I review the main results from UV observations of cool stars atmospheres and outline what can be expected from future UV imaging and spectroscopy measurements.     

The X-ray Emission and the Magnetic Fields of Late-Type Stars

We present the results of X-ray luminosities of some active late-type stars, based on data primarily from the ROSAT position sensitive proportional counter (PSPC). According to the observations, we divide the stars into four groups: single, wide binary, binary and RS CVn. We investigated the correlation between the X-ray emission and the hardness ratio, coronal temperature, magnetic field strength, magnetic flux density. Our results suggest that the magnetic field plays a very important role in stellar X-ray emission.     

Basal heating in the atmospheres of cool stars

Summary This paper reviews observational evidence concerning the existence of so-calledbasal heating that occurs in the outer atmospheres of all stars with convective envelopes. Effects of basal heating depend primarily on the effective temperature, with little sensitivity to surface gravity or elemental abundances. Basal heating occurs predominantly in the chromosphere, possibly in the (lower) transition region, but not at an observable level in coronae (except perhaps in early F-type and in M-type dwarf stars). Basal fluxes are observed in the slowest rotators where it shows no significant modulation. The basal flux level is observed directly on the Sun only over regions void of intrinsically strong photospheric fields. There is substantial quantitative observational and theoretical evidence that the basal emission from stellar outer atmospheres is caused by the dissipation of acoustic waves generated by turbulent convection. The magnetic canopy turns out to be of little consequence, but effects of intrinsically weak fields on the basal mechanism cannot be entirely ruled out. Solar observations constrain the spatio-temporal character of the basal atmosphere and the acoustic flux levels as a function of height, resulting in a model in which intermittent wave dissipation causes emission characteristic of both cool and warm atmospheric areas, in which — at least in the solar case — a time-averaged chromospheric temperature rise may not even exist.     

The far-UV spectrum of T Tauri stars – I. The relevance of the IUE Newly Extracted Spectra

The far-UV spectrum of the T Tauri stars (TTSs) provides important clues about the structure of the stellar atmospheres, winds and accretion shocks. The IUE ( International Ultraviolet Explorer ) Final Archive contains the most complete data base for such studies. A new extraction system, the IUE Newly Extracted Spectra ( ines ), has been developed to overcome the disadvantages of the extraction system used in the IUE Final Archive, the Signal Weighted Extraction Technique ( swet ). We have compared the ines spectra of the whole sample of TTSs in the far-UV range (1200–2000 Å) with the swet low-resolution spectra available in the IUE Final Archive. Although in most of the cases there is a good agreement between both samples, an important enhancement of the ines line fluxes with respect to the swet line fluxes is reported for particular spectra. The line fluxes are enhanced by as much as a factor of ∼2.5 in some objects, which is significant for variability studies of TTSs because the variations of the UV lines are typically of this order. The emission-measure distributions built to study the atmospheres of these stars are based on the UV emission line fluxes, so the new system is susceptible to introduce changes in these models. Moreover, the non-linear enhancement of the ines line fluxes produces variations in diagnostic line ratios usually taken as temperature and density tracers in late-type stars. These line ratios can vary by as much as a factor of 3 when the ines data are compared with the swet , with the subsequent variation of the physical parameters derived from them.     

Model Atmospheres of AGB Stars: Dynamics, Molecules and Dust

The atmospheres and circumstellar envelopes of AGB stars are characterized by complex physical phenomena like shock waves caused by stellar pulsation or formation of molecules and dust which often lead to a heavy mass loss and have a strong influence on IR properties as observed by ISO. To allow a physical interpretation of various observations we have constructed improved dynamical model atmospheres of long-period variables. In this contribution we mainly investigate the dependence of the atmospheric structure and its variability on stellar pulsation, molecular opacities and time-dependent dust formation. IR spectra resulting from our models are discussed in detail by Loidl et al. (1997b) and compared to ISO-SWS spectra obtained by Hron et al. (1997). This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Models of Circumstellar Maser in Late-Type Variable Stars

The database of observations of H₂O maser variability in a sample of late-type variable stars (oxygen-rich Miras and semiregulars) is analyzed. Some regularities of the H₂O variability are traced: in most of the stars studied, the H₂O flux peaks soon after visual light maxima with a phase delay Δ_ϕ ranging between 0.1 and 0.3 P. The models considered involve the effects of pulsation-induced shock waves: direct impact of a shock on the masering layer in the circumstellar envelope or amplification of the radio continuum, produced by the postshock ionized gas near light maxima, by pumped H₂O molecules. This revised version was published online in September 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Winds and mass-loss from evolved,low-gravity cool stars

We summarize results from several programs utilizing the Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to study winds and mass-loss from evolved, low-gravity cool stars. We have found that: (i) the photons for thermally and fluorescently excited UV emission lines are created below the region of wind acceleration, (ii) the self-reversals in optically thick emission lines indicate an outflowing wind with mean velocities of 9–25 km/s, (iii) the profiles of optically thin emission lines indicate a mean chromospheric macroturbulence of 24–35 km/s, anisotropically distributed along the radial-tangential directions, (iv) significant emission from hot material (≈10⁵ K) is seen in both non-coronal and hybrid stars to the right of the Linsky-Haisch dividing line, (v) the weakness of Fe II emission lines in the carbon stars, combined with the presence of the Fe I 2807 Å feature only in carbon stars, suggests that the ionization fraction of iron is significantly lower in the outer atmospheres of carbon stars than in O-rich stars, and (vi) Fe II line profile variations indicate changes in mass-loss rate and wind opacity on a timescale of several years in two typical late-type, low-gravity stars.     

X-ray stars observed in LAMOST spectral survey

X-ray stars have been studied since the beginning of X-ray astronomy. Investigating and studying the chromospheric activity from X-ray stellar optical spectra is highly significant in providing insights into stellar magnetic activity. The big data of LAMOST survey provides an opportunity for researching stellar optical spectroscopic properties of X-ray stars. We inferred the physical properties of X-ray stellar sources from the analysis of LAMOST spectra. First, we cross-matched the X-ray stellar catalogue (12254 X-ray stars) from ARXA with LAMOST data release 3 (DR3), and obtained 984 good spectra from 713 X-ray sources. We then visually inspected and assigned spectral type to each spectrum and calculated the equivalent width (EW) of H\(\alpha\) line using the Hammer spectral typing facility. Based on the EW of H\(\alpha\) line, we found 203 spectra of 145 X-ray sources with H\(\alpha\) emission above the continuum. For these spectra we also measured the EWs of H\(\beta\), H\(\gamma\), H\(\delta\) and Ca ii IRT lines of these spectra. After removing novae, planetary nebulae and OB-type stars, we found there are 127 X-ray late-type stars with H\(\alpha\) line emission. By using our spectra and results from the literature, we found 53 X-ray stars showing H\(\alpha\) variability; these objects are Classical T Tauri stars (CTTs), cataclysmic variables (CVs) or chromospheric activity stars. We also found 18 X-ray stars showing obvious emissions in the Ca ii IRT lines. Of the 18 X-ray stars, 16 are CTTs and 2 are CVs. Finally, we discussed the relationships between the EW of H\(\alpha\) line and X-ray flux.     

Sunspot Bright Points

We used the flux-calibrated images from the Broad-band Filter Imager and Stokes Polarimeter data obtained with the Solar Optical Telescope onboard the Hinode spacecraft to study the properties of bright points in and around sunspots. The selected bright points are smaller in diameter than 150 km with contrasts exceeding about 3 % in the ratio of sunspot images obtained with the G-band (430.5 nm) and Ca ii H (396.85 nm) filters. The bright points are classified as umbral dot, peripheral umbral dot, penumbral grains, and G-band bright point depending on their location. The bright points are preferentially located around the penumbral boundary and in the fast decaying parts of the umbra. The color temperature of the bright points is in the range of 4600 K to 6600 K with cooler ones located in the central part of the umbra. The temperature increases as a function of distance from the center outward. The G-band, CN-band (388.35 nm), and Ca ii H fluxes of the bright points as a function of their blue-band (450.55 nm) brightness increase continuously in a nonlinear fashion unlike their red (668.4 nm) and green (555.05 nm) counterparts. This is consistent with a model in which the localized heating of the flux tube depletes the molecular concentration, resulting in the reduced opacity that leads to the exposition of deeper and hotter layers. The light curve of the bright points shows that the enhanced brightness at these locations lasts for about 15 to 60 min with the least contrast for the points outside the sunspot. The umbral dots near the penumbral boundary are associated with elongated filamentary structures. The spectropolarimeter observations show that the filling factor decreases as the G-band brightness increases. We discuss the results using the model in which the G-band bright points are produced in the cluster of flux tubes that a sunspot consists of.     

Formation of polar starspots through meridional circulation

To explain the observed intermingling of polarities in the magnetic field distributions of rapidly rotating stars, surface magnetic flux transport models demand the presence of fast meridional flows.We combine simulations of the pre-eruptive and post-eruptive magnetic flux transport in cool stars to investigate the influence of a fast meridional circulation on the latitudinal eruption pattern of magnetic flux tubes and on the polar magnetic field properties. Magnetic flux tubes rising through the convection zone experience an enhanced latitude-dependent poleward deflection through meridional flows, which renders the wings of stellar butterfly diagrams convex. The larger amount of magnetic flux emerging at higher latitudes supports the intermingling of opposite polarities of polar magnetic fields and yields magnetic flux densities in the polar regions about 20% higher than in the case disregarding the pre-eruptive deflection. Taking the pre-eruptive evolution of magnetic flux into account therefore eases the need for the fast meridional flows predicted by previous investigations. (© 2007 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Localized magnetic reconnection as a cause of extraplanar diffuse ionized gas in the Galactic halo

Many observations indicate the occurrence of ionized gas in the distant haloes of galaxies (including our own). Since photoionization by stars (mainly O stars, young stars or evolved low-mass stars depending on the kind of galaxy) does not seem to be exclusively responsible for the ionization of the hydrogen filaments that should otherwise cool fast and recombine quickly, the question arises which extra energy source can produce the quasi-stationary ionization. We show that stationary localized magnetic reconnection in current filaments may contribute to the ionization of the extraplanar halo gas. In these filaments magnetic energy is dissipated. Consequently, the ionized as well as the neutral component is heated and re-ionized on a time-scale significantly shorter than the recombination time-scale. The amount of energy required for efficient re-ionization can in principle easily be provided by the free magnetic energy. We present quasi-static models that are characterized by plasma temperatures and densities that agree well with the observed values for the diffuse ionized gas component of the interstellar medium. Plasma–neutral gas fluid simulations are made to show that the recombination-induced dynamical reconnection process indeed works in a self-regulatory way.     

The Emergence of Magnetic Field into Stellar Atmospheres

The magnetic activity in the atmosphere of the Sun, possibly of most other magnetically active late-type stars, is a consequence of the emergence of magnetic flux from the stellar interior. Research in this field has to consider the rise of magnetized plasma from the depths of the convective envelope through the stellar surface and out across the corona. In the present review, a number of key questions, difficulties and results are discussed.     

The impact of meridional circulation on stellar butterfly diagrams and polar caps

Observations of rapidly rotating solar-like stars show a significant mixture of opposite-polarity magnetic fields within their polar regions. To explain these observations, models describing the surface transport of magnetic flux demand the presence of fast meridional flows. Here, we link subsurface and surface magnetic flux transport simulations to investigate (i) the impact of meridional circulations with peak velocities of  ≤125 m s⁻¹  on the latitudinal eruption pattern of magnetic flux tubes and (ii) the influence of the resulting butterfly diagrams on polar magnetic field properties. Prior to their eruption, magnetic flux tubes with low field strengths and initial cross-sections below  ∼300 km  experience an enhanced poleward deflection through meridional flows (assumed to be polewards at the top of the convection zone and equatorwards at the bottom). In particular, flux tubes which originate between low and intermediate latitudes within the convective overshoot region are strongly affected. This latitude-dependent poleward deflection of erupting magnetic flux renders the wings of stellar butterfly diagrams distinctively convex. The subsequent evolution of the surface magnetic field shows that the increased number of newly emerging bipoles at higher latitudes promotes the intermingling of opposite polarities of polar magnetic fields. The associated magnetic flux densities are about 20 per cent higher than in the case disregarding the pre-eruptive deflection, which eases the necessity for fast meridional flows predicted by previous investigations. In order to reproduce the observed polar field properties, the rate of the meridional circulation has to be of the order of 100 m s⁻¹, and the latitudinal range from which magnetic flux tubes originate at the base of the convective zone (≲50°) must be larger than in the solar case (≲35°).     

New m stars in the vicinity of dark nebulae. I

The results of a spectroscopic survey of late-type M stars in three regions of dark nebulae are given. The observations were made on the 1-m Schmidt telescope of Byurakan Observatory with a 4° preobjective prism. A method of detecting late-type M giants is developed on the basis of the presence of TiO absorption bands in their spectra. The area of the regions studied is 48 sq. deg. We found 96 new late-type M stars, 22 of which exhibited brightness variability during our observations and are new variable stars. The limiting magnitude on the plates obtained in red light is 16^m.0, which enables us to state confidently that all late-type M stars (starting with M4) brighter than R = 15^m.0 have been detected. Translated from Astrofizika, Vol. 40, No. 4, pp. 595–607, October-December, 1997.     

Linear MHD Sausage Waves in Compressible Magnetically Twisted Flux Tubes

Oscillations of magnetic flux tubes are of great importance as they contain information about the geometry and fine structure of the flux tubes. Here we derive and analytically solve in terms of Kummer’s functions the linear governing equations of wave propagation for sausage surface and body modes (m=0) of a magnetically twisted compressible flux tube embedded in a compressible uniformly magnetized plasma environment in cylindrical geometry. A general dispersion relation is obtained for such flux tubes. Numerical solutions for the phase velocity are obtained for a wide range of wavenumbers and for varying magnetic twist. The effect of magnetic twist on the period of oscillations of sausage surface modes for different values of the wavenumber and vertical magnetic field strength is calculated for representative photospheric and coronal conditions. These results generalize and extend previous studies of MHD waves obtained for incompressible or for compressible but nontwisted flux tubes. It is found that magnetic twist may change the period of sausage surface waves of the order of a few percent when compared to counterparts in straight nontwisted flux tubes. This information will be most relevant when high-resolution observations are used for diagnostic exploration of MHD wave guides in analogy to solar-interior studies by means of global eigenoscillations in helioseismology.     

晚型星的磁场与软X射线相关性

本文讨论了晚型星的磁场强度与ＲＯＳＡＴ软Ｘ射线的相关性,用四种模型拟合了ＲＯＳＡＴ的观测结果,讨论了各种模型的优缺点,同时发现单星的星冕温度与磁场强度的相关性很好．因此可以认为磁场是晚型星星冕很重要的加热机制．由处理ＲＯＳＡＴ数据得到的星冕温度,可估计晚型星表面的磁场强度．     

A near-infrared survey of IRAS sources in the South Galactic Cap

The paper describes the JHK colours of late-type stars which were investigated as part of a survey of South Galactic Cap (b < -30°) IRAS sources selected on the basis of their 12/25µm flux ratios as high mass-loss candidates. Near-infrared two-colour diagrams provide an effective technique for distinguishing between various groups of late-type stars. Such diagrams are also useful in indicating which stars are likely to be peculiar and worthy of more detailed study. The late-type stars isolated by this survey comprise: 61 Mira variables (3 of which are carbon stars with very thick shells), 3 young stellar objects, 4 interacting binaries, 2 semi-regular carbon variables and 154 oxygen-rich giants.