Svetlana V. Berdyugina

Active longitudes, nonaxisymmetric dynamos and phase mixing

We discuss the problem of solar active longitudes from the viewpoint of dynamo theory. We start from a recent observational analysis of the problem undertaken by Berdyugina & Usoskin (2003, AA however we can not exclude in principle such an explanation. We relate the phenomenon of solar active longitudes to the information available concerning stellar active longitudes, and also consider evidence from other tracers of solar activity.

Magnetospherically driven optical and radio aurorae at the end of the stellar main sequence

Aurorae are detected from all the magnetized planets in our Solar System, including Earth. They are powered by magnetospheric current systems that lead to the precipitation of energetic electrons into the high-latitude regions of the upper atmosphere. In the case of the gas-giant planets, these aurorae include highly polarized radio emission at kilohertz and megahertz frequencies produced by the precipitating electrons, as well as continuum and line emission in the infrared, optical, ultraviolet and X-ray parts of the spectrum, associated with the collisional excitation and heating of the hydrogen-dominated atmosphere. Here we report simultaneous radio and optical spectroscopic observations of an object at the end of the stellar main sequence, located right at the boundary between stars and brown dwarfs, from which we have detected radio and optical auroral emissions both powered by magnetospheric currents. Whereas the magnetic activity of stars like our Sun is powered by processes that occur in their lower atmospheres, these aurorae are powered by processes originating much further out in the magnetosphere of the dwarf star that couple energy into the lower atmosphere. The dissipated power is at least four orders of magnitude larger than what is produced in the Jovian magnetosphere, revealing aurorae to be a potentially ubiquitous signature of large-scale magnetospheres that can scale to luminosities far greater than those observed in our Solar System. These magnetospheric current systems may also play a part in powering some of the weather phenomena reported on brown dwarfs.

Magnetic activity in the young solar analog AB Dor Active longitudes and cycles from long-term photometry

We analyse photometric observations of the young active dwarf AB Dor, spanning more than 20 years. Similar to the young solar analog LQ Hya, AB Dor shows long-lived, nonaxisymmetric spot distribution - active longitudes in opposite hemispheres. The active longitudes migrate nonlinearly in the fixed reference frame, because of the differential rotation and changes of the mean spot latitudes. At least two activity cycles are found in the data. One cycle originates from repeating switches of the activity between the two active longitudes in about (2-3)-year intervals. This results in the flip-flop cycle of about 5.5 years, which includes two consecutive switches. The 5.5-yr cycle also modulates variations of the minimum stellar brightness and the peak-to-peak amplitude, that suggests a periodic redistribution of the spot area between the opposite longitudes and supports the reality of the flip-flop cycle. The other cycle is clearly seen in variations of the mean and maximum stellar brightness on the time-scale of 20 years and is reminiscent of the 11-year sunspot cycle.

Spots on EK Draconis : Active longitudes and cycles from long-term photometry

We analyse photometric observations of the young active star EK Dra, altogether about 21 years. Similar to the ZAMS stars LQ Hya and AB Dor, EK Dra shows long-lived, non-axisymmetric spot distribution with active longitudes on opposite hemispheres. At least two activity cycle can be found from the data. The first cycle originates from repeated switches of the activity between two active longitudes in about (2-2.25)-year intervals, resulting in a cycle of about (4-4.5) years. The second cycle is of the order of 10.5 years and comes from migration of the active longitudes. Our data cover two consecutive cycles. The periodicity is also present in the maximum, the mean and the minimum stellar brightness. Additionally, there is a long-term trend. If we combine our data with the Sonneberg plate measurements, we can conclude that the overall brightness of EK Dra has been continuously decreasing at least for the last 45 years. A comparison with current sunspot activity reveals many similarities between the Sun and EK Dra.

Zeeman component decomposition for recovering common profiles and magnetic fields

Context. High resolution spectropolarimetric data contain information about the region where atomic and/or molecular lines form. Existing multi-line techniques assuming similarities in shapes of line profiles can extract generalized Stokes signatures from noisy spectra. However, the interpretability of these signatures is limited by the commonly employed weak-field and weak-line approximations. On the other hand, inversion techniques based on realistic polarized radiative transfer can interpret complicated individual line profiles but still unable to handle the informative wealth of broad-band spectra. Aims. We present a new method, Zeeman component decomposition (ZCD), which combines the versatility of an unconstrained line profile resulting from a multi-line analysis with the radiative transfer physics implying that one profile constitutes all Stokes parameters. We show that the ZCD is capable of inferring a common Zeeman component profile as well as a reliable magnetic field vector from noisy broad-band spectra. Methods. We employ an analytic polarized radiative transfer solution describing formation of polarized line profiles in a MilneEddington atmosphere. The ZCD is built as a nonlinear inversion procedure with a number of free parameters, namely an unconstrained line profile, the line central depths, and the magnetic field parameters |B|, γ and χ. The procedure is applied to all Stokes parameters simultaneously. We carefully analyse blending of line profiles and Zeeman components and obtain practical analytical expressions. By comparing the anomalous Zeeman splitting with the commonly used triplet approximation, we obtain an estimate of the error, helping us to identify the cases where the simplification is not applicable. Results. We demonstrate the capabilities of the ZCD by applying it to simulated Stokes I,V ,a nd fullI,Q,U,V spectra. The first test shows that the ZCD outperforms standard multi-line techniques in finding common line profiles for noisy polarization spectra and, in addition, consistently recovers the line-of-sight magnetic field. Trials with I,Q,U,V spectra demonstrate the ability of the ZCD to work with noisy linear polarization spectra and recover the magnetic field parameters in realistic scenarios.

First detection of a weak magnetic field on the giant Arcturus: remnants of a solar dynamo?

Context. Arcturus is the second closest K giant and among the brightest stars in the sky. It has not been found to have a magnetic field, even though Ca II H&K lines as activity indicators imply that Arcturus is magnetically active. Aims. We measure the mean longitudinal magnetic field strengths and interpret them in terms of an intraseasonal activity modulation. Methods. We apply our new Zeeman component decomposition (ZCD) technique to three single sets of Stokes / and V spectra to measure the longitudinal component of the magnetic field responsible for tiny Zeeman signatures detected in spectral line profiles. Results. For two of the spectra, we report the detection of the Zeeman signature of a weak longitudinal magnetic field of 0.65 ± 0.26 G and 0.43 ± 0.16 G. The third measurement is less significant, but all the measurements closely reproduce a rotationally modulated activity cycle with four active longitudes. Conclusions. For the first time, a magnetic field on Arcturus is directly detected. This field can be attributed to a diminishing solar-type αΩ-dynamo acting in the deepening convection zone of Arcturus. We demonstrate that our new method ZCD lowers the detection limit of very weak magnetic fields from spectropolarimetric measurements.

GJ 841B—THE SECOND DQ WHITE DWARF WITH POLARIZED CH MOLECULAR BANDS

We report a discovery of the circularly polarized CH A 2Δ-X 2Π and B 2Σ–-X 2Π molecular bands in the spectrum of the DQ white dwarf (WD) GJ 841B. This is only the second such object since the discovery of G99-37 in the 1970s. GJ 841B is also the first WD to unambiguously show polarization in the C2 Swan bands. By modeling the intensity and circular polarization in the CH bands, we determine the longitudinal magnetic field strength of 1.3 ± 0.5 MG and the temperature of 6100 ± 200 K in the absorbing region. We also present new observations of G99-37 and obtain estimates of the magnetic field strength 7.3 ± 0.3 MG and temperature 6200 ± 200 K, in good agreement with previous results.

Molecules as magnetic probes of starspots

Stellar dynamo processes can be explored by measuring the magnetic field. This is usually obtained using the atomic and molecular Zeeman effect in spectral lines. While the atomic Zeeman effect can only access warmer regions, the use of molecular lines is of advantage for studying cool objects. The molecules MgH, TiO, CaH, and FeH are suited to probe stellar magnetic fields, each one for a different range of spectral types, by considering the signal that is obtained from modeling various spectral types. We have analyzed the usefulness of different molecules (MgH, TiO, CaH, and FeH) as diagnostic tools for studying stellar magnetism on active G-K-M dwarfs. We investigate the temperature range in which the selected molecules can serve as indicators for magnetic fields on highly active cool stars and present synthetic Stokes profiles for the modeled spectral type. We modeled a star with a spot size of 10% of the stellar disk and a spot comprising either only longitudinal or only transverse magnetic fields and estimated the strengths of the polarization Stokes V and Q signals for the molecules MgH, TiO, CaH, and FeH. We combined various photosphere and spot models according to realistic scenarios. In G dwarfs, the molecules MgH and FeH show overall the strongest Stokes V and Q signals from the starspot, whereas FeH has a stronger Stokes V signal in all G dwarfs, with a spot temperature of 3800K. In K dwarfs, CaH signals are generally stronger, and the TiO signature is most prominent in M dwarfs. Modeling synthetic polarization signals from starspots for a range of G-K-M dwarfs leads to differences in the prominence of various molecular signatures in different wavelength regions, which helps to efficiently select targets and exposure times for observations.

Nonlinear deconvolution with deblending: a new analyzing technique for spectroscopy

Context. Spectroscopy data in general often deals with an entanglement of spectral line properties, especially in the case of blended line profiles, independently of how high the quality of the data may be. In stellar spectroscopy and spectropolarimetry, where atomic transition parameters are usually known, the use of multi-line techniques to increase the signal-to-noise ratio of observations has become common practice. These methods extract an average line profile by means of either least squares deconvolution (LSD) or principle component analysis (PCA). However, only a few methods account for the blending of line profiles, and when they do, they assume that line profiles add linearly. Aims. We abandon the simplification of linear line-adding for Stokes I and present a novel approach that accounts for the nonlinearity in blended profiles, also illuminating the process of a reasonable deconvolution of a spectrum. Only the combination of those two enables us to treat spectral line variables independently, constituting our method of nonlinear deconvolution with deblending (NDD). The improved interpretation of a common line profile achieved compensates for the additional expense in calculation time, especially when it comes to the application to (Zeeman) doppler imaging (ZDI). Methods. By examining how absorption lines of different depths blend with each other and describing the effects of line-adding in a mathematically simple, yet physically meaningful way, we discover how it is possible to express a total line depth in terms of a (nonlinear) combination of contributing individual components. Thus, we disentangle blended line profiles and underlying parameters in a truthful manner and strongly increase the reliability of the common line patterns retrieved. Results. By comparing different versions of LSD with our NDD technique applied to simulated atomic and molecular intensity spectra, we are able to illustrate the improvements provided by our method to the interpretation of the recovered mean line profiles. As a consequence, it is possible for the first time to retrieve an intrinsic line pattern from a molecular band, offering the opportunity to fully include them in a NDD-based ZDI. However, we also show that strong line broadening deters the existence of a unique solution for heavily blended lines such as in molecular bandheads.

Study of FK Comae Berenices - III. Photometry for the years 1993-2001

We present 8 years of previously unpublished photometric observations of FK Com together with the determination of the stability of the primary comparison star HD 117567. The observations have been carried out between 1993 and 2001 at four different observatories and they consist of 5157 data points in total: U (903), B (994), V (1643), R (166), I c (573), b (461) and y (417). We also analyse this new data together with the previously published photometric observations. The V magnitude shows variations with dominant periods of about 3, 6, 12, 14 and 31 years. The short-term light curve variations appear to be caused by rearrangement of approximately constant amount of cool spots. From the values for different colours obtained during the brightest season observed, corresponding to the supposedly unspotted surface, the spectral type of FK Com is determined to be G7 III.