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One of the puzzles to have emerged from the Kepler and TESS missions is the existence of unexplained dips in the light curves of a small fraction of rapidly rotating M dwarfs in young open clusters and star-forming regions. We present a theoretical investigation of one possible explanation – that these are caused by dust clouds trapped in the stellar magnetic fields. The depth and duration of the observed dips allow us to estimate directly the linear extent of the dust clouds and their distances from the rotation axis. The dips are found to be between 0.4 and 4.8 per cent. We find that their distance is close to the co-rotation radius: the typical location for stable points where charged particles can be trapped in a stellar magnetosphere. We estimate the charge acquired by a dust particle due to collisions with the coronal gas and hence determine the maximum grain size that can be magnetically supported, the stopping distance due to gas drag, and the time-scale on which dust particles can diffuse out of a stable point. Using the observationally derived magnetic field of the active M dwarf V374 Peg, we model the distribution of these dust clouds and produce synthetic light curves. We find that for 1μm dust grains, the light curves have dips of 1–3 per cent and can support masses of order of 1012 kg. We conclude that magnetically trapped dust clouds (potentially from residual disc accretion or tidally disrupted planetesimal or cometary bodies) are capable of explaining the periodic dips in the Kepler and TESS data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spectropolarimetric data allow for simultaneous monitoring of stellar chromospheric |$\log {R^{\prime }_{\rm {HK}}}$| activity and the surface-averaged longitudinal magnetic field, Bl , giving the opportunity to probe the relationship between large-scale stellar magnetic fields and chromospheric manifestations of magnetism. We present |$\log {R^{\prime }_{\rm {HK}}}$| and/or Bl measurements for 954 mid-F to mid-M stars derived from spectropolarimetric observations contained within the PolarBase database. Our magnetically active sample complements previous stellar activity surveys that focus on inactive planet-search targets. We find a positive correlation between mean |$\log {R^{\prime }_{\rm {HK}}}$| and mean log | Bl |, but for G stars the relationship may undergo a change between |$\log {R^{\prime }_{\rm {HK}}}\sim -4.4$| and −4.8. The mean |$\log {R^{\prime }_{\rm {HK}}}$| shows a similar change with respect to the |$\log {R^{\prime }_{\rm {HK}}}$| variability amplitude for intermediately active G stars. We also combine our results with archival chromospheric activity data and published observations of large-scale magnetic field geometries derived using Zeeman–Doppler Imaging. The chromospheric activity data indicate a slight under-density of late-F to early-K stars with |$-4.75\le \log {R^{\prime }_{\rm HK}}\le -4.5$|⁠. This is not as prominent as the original Vaughan–Preston gap, and we do not detect similar under-populated regions in the distributions of the mean | Bl |, or the Bl and |$\log {R^{\prime }_{\rm HK}}$| variability amplitudes. Chromospheric activity, activity variability, and toroidal field strength decrease on the main sequence as rotation slows. For G stars, the disappearance of dominant toroidal fields occurs at a similar chromospheric activity level as the change in the relationships between chromospheric activity, activity variability, and mean field strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report results of a spectropolarimetric and photometric monitoring of the weak-line T Tauri star V410 Tau based on data collected mostly with SPIRou, the near-infrared (NIR) spectropolarimeter recently installed at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope , as part of the SPIRou Legacy Survey large programme, and with TESS between October and December 2019. Using Zeeman–Doppler Imaging (ZDI), we obtained the first maps of photospheric brightness and large-scale magnetic field at the surface of this young star derived from NIR spectropolarimetric data. For the first time, ZDI is also simultaneously applied to high-resolution spectropolarimetric data and very-high-precision photometry. V410 Tau hosts both dark and bright surface features and magnetic regions similar to those previously imaged with ZDI from optical data, except for the absence of a prominent dark polar spot. The brightness distribution is significantly less contrasted than its optical equivalent, as expected from the difference in wavelength. The large-scale magnetic field (⁠|${\sim}410$|  G), found to be mainly poloidal, features a dipole of |${\sim}390$|  G, again compatible with previous studies at optical wavelengths. NIR data yield a surface differential rotation slightly weaker than that estimated in the optical at previous epochs. Finally, we measured the radial velocity of the star and filtered out the stellar activity jitter using both ZDI and Gaussian Process Regression down to a precision of |${\sim}0.15$| and 0.08  |$\mathrm{km}\, \mathrm{s}^{-1}$| RMS, respectively, confirming the previously published upper limit on the mass of a potential close-in massive planet around V410 Tau. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studying cool star magnetic activity gives an important insight into the stellar dynamo and its relationship with stellar properties, as well as allowing us to place the Sun's magnetism in the context of other stars. Only 61 Cyg A (K5V) and τ Boo (F8V) are currently known to have magnetic cycles like the Sun's, where the large-scale magnetic field polarity reverses in phase with the star's chromospheric activity cycles. τ Boo has a rapid ∼240 d magnetic cycle, and it is not yet clear whether this is related to the star's thin convection zone or if the dynamo is accelerated by interactions between τ Boo and its hot Jupiter. To shed light on this, we studied the magnetic activity of HD 75332 (F7V) which has similar physical properties to τ Boo and does not appear to host a hot Jupiter. We characterized its long-term chromospheric activity variability over 53 yr and used Zeeman Doppler Imaging to reconstruct the large-scale surface magnetic field for 12 epochs between 2007 and 2019. Although we observe only one reversal of the large-scale magnetic dipole, our results suggest that HD 75332 has a rapid ∼1.06 yr solar-like magnetic cycle where the magnetic field evolves in phase with its chromospheric activity. If a solar-like cycle is present, reversals of the large-scale radial field polarity are expected to occur at around activity cycle maxima. This would be similar to the rapid magnetic cycle observed for τ Boo, suggesting that rapid magnetic cycles may be intrinsic to late-F stars and related to their shallow convection zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We are reaching the point where spectropolarimetric surveys have run for long enough to reveal solar-like magnetic activity cycles. In this paper, we investigate what would be the best strategy to identify solar-like magnetic cycles and ask which large-scale magnetic field parameters best follow a solar-type magnetic cycle and are observable with the Zeeman-Doppler-Imaging (ZDI) technique. We approach these questions using the 3D non-potential flux transport simulations of Yeates & Mackay (2012) modelling the solar vector magnetic field over 15 yr (centred on solar cycle 23). The flux emergence profile was extracted from solar synoptic maps and used as input for a photospheric flux transport model in combination with a non-potential coronal evolution model. We synthesize spectropolarimetric data from the simulated maps and reconstruct them using ZDI. The ZDI observed solar cycle is set into the context of other cool star observations and we present observable trends of the magnetic field topology with time, sunspot number, and S-index. We find that the axisymmetric energy fraction is the best parameter of the ZDI detectable large-scale field to trace solar-like cycles. Neither the surface averaged large-scale field or the total magnetic energy is appropriate. ZDI seems also to be able to recover the increase of the toroidal energy with S-index. We see further that ZDI might unveil hints of the dynamo modes that are operating and of the global properties of the small-scale flux emergence like active latitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The structure of a star's coronal magnetic field is a fundamental property that governs the high-energy emission from the hot coronal gas and the loss of mass and angular momentum in the stellar wind. It is, however, extremely difficult to measure. We report a new method to trace this structure in rapidly rotating young convective stars, using the cool gas trapped on coronal field lines as markers. This gas forms 'slingshot prominences' that appear as transient absorption features in H α. By using different methods of extrapolating this field from the surface measurements, we determine locations for prominence support and produce synthetic H α stacked spectra. The absorption features produced with a potential field extrapolation match well those observed, while the absorption features from a non-potential field do not. In systems where the rotation and magnetic axes are well aligned, up to |$50{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$| of the prominence mass may transit the star and so produces a observable feature. This fraction may fall as low as |$~2{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$| in very highly inclined systems. Ejected prominences carry away mass and angular momentum at rates that vary by two orders of magnitude, but which may approach those carried by the stellar wind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The large-scale magnetic fields of stars can be obtained with the Zeeman Doppler Imaging (ZDI) technique, but their interpretation is still challenging as the contribution of the small-scale field or the reliability of the reconstructed field properties is still not fully understood. To quantify this, we use 3D non-potential magnetic field simulations for slowly rotating solar-like stars as inputs to test the capabilities of ZDI. These simulations are based on a flux transport model connected to a non-potential coronal evolution model using the observed solar flux emergence pattern. We first compare four field prescriptions regarding their reconstruction capabilities and investigate the influence of the spatial resolution of the input maps on the corresponding circularly polarized profiles. We then generate circularly polarized spectra based on our high-resolution simulations of three stellar models with different activity levels, and reconstruct their large-scale magnetic fields using a non-potential ZDI code assuming two different stellar inclination angles. Our results show that the ZDI technique reconstructs the main features of slowly rotating solar-like stars but with ∼ one order of magnitude less magnetic energy. The large-scale field morphologies are recovered up to harmonic modes ℓ ∼ 5, especially after averaging over several maps for each stellar model. While ZDI is not able to reproduce the input magnetic energy distributions across individual harmonic modes, the fractional energies across the modes are generally within 20  per cent agreement. The fraction of axisymmetric and toroidal field tends to be overestimated for stars with solar flux emergence patterns for more pole-on inclination angles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the aims of the BCool programme is to search for cycles in other stars and to understand how similar they are to the Sun. In this paper, we aim to monitor the evolution of τ Boo’s large-scale magnetic field using high-cadence observations covering its chromospheric activity maximum. For the first time, we detect a polarity switch that is in phase with τ Boo’s 120-day chromospheric activity maximum and its inferred X-ray activity cycle maximum. This means that τ Boo has a very fast magnetic cycle of only 240 days. At activity maximum τ Boo’s large-scale field geometry is very similar to the Sun at activity maximum: it is complex and there is a weak dipolar component. In contrast, we also see the emergence of a strong toroidal component which has not been observed on the Sun, and a potentially overlapping butterfly pattern where the next cycle begins before the previous one has finished. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Magnetic activity is known to be correlated to the rotation period for moderately active mainsequence solar-like stars. In turn, the stellar rotation period evolves as a result of magnetized stellar winds that carry away angular momentum. Understanding the interplay between magnetic activity and stellar rotation is therefore a central task for stellar astrophysics. Angular momentum evolution models typically employ spin-down torques that are formulated in terms of the surface magnetic field strength. However, these formulations fail to account for the magnetic field geometry, unlike those that are expressed in terms of the open flux, i.e. the magnetic flux along which stellar winds flow. In this work, we model the angular momentum evolution of main-sequence solar-mass stars using a torque law formulated in terms of the open flux. This is done using a potential field source surface model in conjunction with the Zeeman-Doppler magnetograms of a sample of roughly solar-mass stars. We explore how the open flux of these stars varies with stellar rotation and choice of source surface radii. We also explore the effect of field geometry by using two methods of determining the open flux. The first method only accounts for the dipole component while the second accounts for the full set of spherical harmonics available in the Zeeman-Doppler magnetogram. We find only a small difference between the two methods, demonstrating that the open flux, and indeed the spin-down, of main-sequence solar-mass stars is likely dominated by the dipolar component of the magnetic field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the results of an extended spectropolarimetric and photometric monitoring of the weak-line T Tauri star TAP 26, carried out within the Magnetic Topologies of Young Stars and the Survival of close-in massive Exoplanets (MaTYSSE) programme with the Echelle SpectroPolarimetric Device for the Observation of Stars (ESPaDOnS) spectropolarimeter at the 3.6-m Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. Applying Zeeman-Doppler Imaging (ZDI) to our observations, concentrating in 2015 November and 2016 January and spanning 72 d in total, 16 d in 2015 November and 13 d in 2016 January, we reconstruct surface brightness and magnetic field maps for both epochs and demonstrate that both distributions exhibit temporal evolution not explained by differential rotation alone. We report the detection of a hot Jupiter (hJ) around TAP 26 using three different methods, two using ZDI and one Gaussianprocess regression (GPR), with a false-alarm probability smaller than 6×10-4. However, as a result of the aliasing related to the observing window, the orbital period cannot be uniquely determined; the orbital period with highest likelihood is 10.79 ± 0.14 d followed by 8.99 ± 0.09 d. Assuming the most likely period and that the planet orbits in the stellar equatorial plane, we obtain that the planet has a minimum mass Msin i of 1.66 ± 0.31 MJup and orbits at 0.0968±0.0032 au from its host star. This new detection suggests that disc type II migration is efficient at generating newborn hJs and that hJs may be more frequent around young T Tauri stars than around mature stars (or that the MaTYSSE sample is biased towards hJ-hosting stars). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report results of an extended spectropolarimetric and photometric monitoring of the weakline T Tauri star V830 Tau and its recently detected newborn close-in giant planet. Our observations, carried out within the MaTYSSE (Magnetic Topologies of Young Stars and the Survival of close-in giant Exoplanets) programme, were spread over 91 d, and involved the ESPaDOnS and Narval spectropolarimeters linked to the 3.6-m Canada-France-Hawaii, the 2-m Bernard Lyot, and the 8-m Gemini-North Telescopes. Using Zeeman-Doppler Imaging, we characterize the surface brightness distributions, magnetic topologies, and surface differential rotation of V830 Tau at the time of our observations, and demonstrate that both distributions evolve with time beyond what is expected from differential rotation. We also report that near the end of our observations, V830 Tau triggered one major flare and two weaker precursors, showing up as enhanced redshifted emission in multiple spectral activity proxies. With three different filtering techniques, we model the radial velocity (RV) activity jitter (of semi-amplitude 1.2 km s-1) that V830 Tau generates, successfully retrieve the 68 ± 11 m s-1 RV planet signal hiding behind the jitter, further confirm the existence of V830 Tau b, and better characterize its orbital parameters. We find that the method based on Gaussian-process regression performs best thanks to its higher ability at modelling not only the activity jitter, but also its temporal evolution over the course of our observations, and succeeds at reproducing our RV data down to an rms precision of 35 m s-1. Our result provides new observational constraints on scenarios of star/planet formation and demonstrates the scientific potential of large-scale searches for close-in giant planets around T Tauri stars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report results of a spectropolarimetric and photometric monitoring of the weak-line T Tauri stars (wTTSs) V819 Tau and V830 Tau within the MaTYSSE (Magnetic Topologies of Young Stars and the Survival of close-in giant Exoplanets) programme, involving the ESPaDOnS spectropolarimeter at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. At 3 Myr, both stars dissipated their discs recently and are interesting objects for probing star and planet formation. Profile distortions and Zeeman signatures are detected in the unpolarized and circularly polarized lines, whose rotational modulation we modelled using tomographic imaging, yielding brightness and magnetic maps for both stars. We find that the large-scale magnetic fields of V819 Tau and V830 Tau are mostly poloidal and can be approximated at large radii by 350-400 G dipoles tilted at 30° to the rotation axis. They are significantly weaker than the field of GQ Lup, an accreting classical T Tauri star (cTTS) with similar mass and age which can be used to compare the magnetic properties of wTTSs and cTTSs. The reconstructed brightness maps of both stars include cool spots and warm plages. Surface differential rotation is small, typically 4.4 times smaller than on the Sun, in agreement with previous results on wTTSs. Using our Doppler images to model the activity jitter and filter it out from the radial velocity (RV) curves, we obtain RV residuals with dispersions of 0.033 and 0.104 km s-1 for V819 Tau and V830 Tau, respectively. RV residuals suggest that a hot Jupiter may be orbiting V830 Tau, though additional data are needed to confirm this preliminary result. We find no evidence for close-in giant planet around V819 Tau. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]