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This paper analyses spectropolarimetric observations of the classical T Tauri star (CTTS) GM Aurigae collected with SPIRou, the near-infrared spectropolarimeter at the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope, as part of the SLS and SPICE Large Programs. We report for the first time results on the large-scale magnetic field at the surface of GM Aur using Zeeman Doppler imaging. Its large-scale magnetic field energy is almost entirely stored in an axisymmetric poloidal field, which places GM Aur close to other CTTSs with similar internal structures. A dipole of about 730 G dominates the large-scale field topology, while higher order harmonics account for less than 30 per cent of the total magnetic energy. Overall, we find that the main difference between our three reconstructed maps (corresponding to sequential epochs) comes from the evolving tilt of the magnetic dipole, likely generated by non-stationary dynamo processes operating in this largely convective star rotating with a period of about 6 d. Finally, we report a |$5.5\sigma$| detection of a signal in the activity-filtered radial velocity data of semi-amplitude |$110\pm 20$|  m s |$^{-1}$|  at a period of |$8.745\pm 0.009$|  d. If attributed to a close-in planet in the inner accretion disc of GM Aur, it would imply that this planet candidate has a minimum mass of |$1.10 \pm 0.30\, M_\mathrm{Jup}$| and orbits at a distance of |$0.082 \pm 0.002$|  au. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report results of a spectropolarimetric monitoring of the young Sun-like star V1298 Tau based on data collected with the near-infrared spectropolarimeter SPIRou at the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope between late 2019 and early 2023. Using Zeeman–Doppler Imaging and the Time-dependent Imaging of Magnetic Stars methods on circularly polarized spectra, we reconstructed the large-scale magnetic topology of the star (and its temporal evolution), found to be mainly poloidal and axisymmetric with an average strength varying from 90 to 170 G over the ∼3.5 yr of monitoring. The magnetic field features a dipole whose strength evolves from 85 to 245 G, and whose inclination with respect to the stellar rotation axis remains stable until 2023 where we observe a sudden change, suggesting that the field may undergo a polarity reversal, potentially similar to those periodically experienced by the Sun. Our data suggest that the differential rotation shearing the surface of V1298 Tau is about 1.5 times stronger than that of the Sun. When coupling our data with previous photometric results from K2 and TESS and assuming circular orbits for all four planets, we report a 3.9σ detection of the radial velocity signature of the outermost planet (e), associated with a most probable mass, density, and orbital period of |$M_\mathrm{e}=0.95^{+0.33}_{-0.24}$| MꝜ, |$\rho _\mathrm{e}=1.66^{+0.61}_{-0.48}$| |$\rm g\, cm^{-3}$|⁠ , and P e = 53.0039 ± 0.0001 d, respectively. For the three inner planets, we only derive 99 per cent confidence upper limits on their mass of 0.44, 0.22, and 0.25 MꝜ, for b, c, and d, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present near-infrared spectropolarimetric observations of a sample of 43 weakly to moderately active M dwarfs, carried with SPIRou at the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope in the framework of the SPIRou Legacy Survey from early 2019 to mid-2022. We use the 6700 circularly polarised spectra collected for this sample to investigate the longitudinal magnetic field and its temporal variations for all sample stars, from which we diagnose, through quasi-periodic Gaussian process regression, the periodic modulation and longer-term fluctuations of the longitudinal field. We detect the large-scale field for 40 of our 43 sample stars, and infer a reliable or tentative rotation period for 38 of them, using a Bayesian framework to diagnose the confidence level at which each rotation period is detected. We find rotation periods ranging from 14 to over 60 d for the early-M dwarfs, and from 70 to 200 d for most mid- and late-M dwarfs (potentially up to 430 d for one of them). We also find that the strength of the detected large-scale fields does not decrease with increasing period or Rossby number for the slowly rotating dwarfs of our sample as it does for higher-mass, more active stars, suggesting that these magnetic fields may be generated through a different dynamo regime than those of more rapidly rotating stars. We also show that the large-scale fields of most sample stars evolve on long time-scales, with some of them globally switching sign as stars progress on their putative magnetic cycles. [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]

There is a large change in surface rotation rates of sun-like stars on the pre-main sequence and early main sequence. Since these stars have dynamo-driven magnetic fields, this implies a strong evolution of their magnetic properties over this time period. The spin-down of these stars is controlled by interactions between stellar and magnetic fields, thus magnetic evolution in turn plays an important role in rotational evolution. We present here the second part of a study investigating the evolution of large-scale surface magnetic fields in this critical time period. We observed stars in open clusters and stellar associations with known ages between 120 and 650 Myr, and used spectropolarimetry and Zeeman Doppler Imaging to characterize their large-scale magnetic field strength and geometry. We report 15 stars with magnetic detections here. These stars have masses from 0.8 to 0.95 M⊙, rotation periods from 0.326 to 10.6 d, and we find large-scale magnetic field strengths from 8.5 to 195G with a wide range of geometries. We find a clear trend towards decreasing magnetic field strength with age, and a power law decrease in magnetic field strength with Rossby number. There is some tentative evidence for saturation of the large-scale magnetic field strength at Rossby numbers below 0.1, although the saturation point is not yet well defined. Comparing to younger classical T Tauri stars, we support the hypothesis that differences in internal structure produce large differences in observed magnetic fields, however for weak-lined T Tauri stars this is less clear. [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]

The young and magnetically active K dwarf ∈ Eridani exhibits a chromospheric activity cycle of about 3 yr. Previous reconstructions of its large-scale magnetic field show strong variations at yearly epochs. To understand how ∈ Eridani's large-scale magnetic field geometry evolves over its activity cycle, we focus on high-cadence observations spanning 5 months at its activity minimum. Over this time-span, we reconstruct three maps of ∈ Eridani's large-scale magnetic field using the tomographic technique of Zeeman–Doppler imaging. The results show that at the minimum of its cycle, ∈ Eridani's large-scale field is more complex than the simple dipolar structure of the Sun and 61 Cyg A at minimum. Additionally, we observe a surprisingly rapid regeneration of a strong axisymmetric toroidal field as ∈ Eridani emerges from its S-index activity minimum. Our results show that all stars do not exhibit the same field geometry as the Sun, and this will be an important constraint for the dynamo models of active solar-type stars. [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 present a spectropolarimetric snapshot survey of solar-type planet-hosting stars. In addition to 14 planet-hosting stars observed as part of the BCool magnetic snapshot survey, we obtained magnetic observations of a further 19 planet-hosting solar-type stars in order to see if the presence of close-in planets had an effect on the measured surface magnetic field (|Bl|). Our results indicate that the magnetic activity of this sample is congruent with that of the overall BCool sample. The effects of the planetary systems on the magnetic activity of the parent star, if any, are too subtle to detect compared to the intrinsic dispersion and correlations with rotation, age and stellar activity proxies in our sample. Four of the 19 newly observed stars, two of which are subgiants, have unambiguously detected magnetic fields and are future targets for Zeeman-Doppler mapping. [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]

Zeeman–Doppler imaging (ZDI) has successfully mapped the large-scale magnetic fields of stars over a large range of spectral types, rotation periods and ages. When observed over multiple epochs, some stars show polarity reversals in their global magnetic fields. On the Sun, polarity reversals are a feature of its activity cycle. In this paper, we examine the magnetic properties of stars with existing chromospherically determined cycle periods. Previous authors have suggested that cycle periods lie on multiple branches, either in the cycle period–Rossby number plane or the cycle period–rotation period plane. We find some evidence that stars along the active branch show significant average toroidal fields that exhibit large temporal variations while stars exclusively on the inactive branch remain dominantly poloidal throughout their entire cycle. This lends credence to the idea that different shear layers are in operation along each branch. There is also evidence that the short magnetic polarity switches observed on some stars are characteristic of the inactive branch while the longer chromospherically determined periods are characteristic of the active branch. This may explain the discrepancy between the magnetic and chromospheric cycle periods found on some stars. These results represent a first attempt at linking global magnetic field properties obtained from ZDI and activity cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present six epochs of spectropolarimetric observations of the hot-Jupiter-hosting star t Bootis that extend the exceptional previous multiyear data set of its large-scale magnetic field. Our results confirm that the large-scale magnetic field of t Bootis varies cyclicly, with the observation of two further magnetic reversals; between 2013 December and 2014 May and between 2015 January and March. We also show that the field evolves in a broadly solar-type manner in contrast to other F-type stars. We further present new results which indicate that the chromospheric activity cycle and the magnetic activity cycles are related, which would indicate a very rapid magnetic cycle. As an exemplar of long-term magnetic field evolution, t Bootis and this long-term monitoring campaign presents a unique opportunity for studying stellar magnetic cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The surface rotation rates of young solar-type stars vary rapidly with age from the end of the pre-main sequence through the early main sequence. Important changes in the dynamos operating in these stars may result from this evolution, which should be observable in their surface magnetic fields. Here we present a study aimed at observing the evolution of these magnetic fields through this critical time period. We observed stars in open clusters and stellar associations of known ages, and used Zeeman Doppler imaging to characterize their complex magnetic large-scale fields. Presented here are results for 15 stars, from five associations, with ages from 20 to 250 Myr, masses from 0.7 to 1.2 M☉, and rotation periods from 0.4 to 6 d. We find complex large-scale magnetic field geometries, with global average strengths from 14 to 140 G. There is a clear trend towards decreasing average large-scale magnetic field strength with age, and a tight correlation between magnetic field strength and Rossby number. Comparing the magnetic properties of our zero-age main-sequence sample to those of both younger and older stars, it appears that the magnetic evolution of solar-type stars during the pre-main sequence is primarily driven by structural changes, while it closely follows the stars' rotational evolution on the main sequence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spectropolarimetric observations have been used to map stellar magnetic fields, many of which display strong bands of azimuthal fields that are toroidal. A number of explanations have been proposed to explain how such fields might be generated though none are definitive. In this paper, we examine the toroidal fields of a sample of 55 stars with magnetic maps, with masses in the range 0.1-1.5 M⊙. We find that the energy contained in toroidal fields has a power-law dependence on the energy contained in poloidal fields. However the power index is not constant across our sample, with stars less and more massive than 0.5 M⊙ having power indices of 0.72 ± 0.08 and 1.25 ± 0.06, respectively. There is some evidence that these two power laws correspond to stars in the saturated and unsaturated regimes of the rotation-activity relation. Additionally, our sample shows that strong toroidal fields must be generated axisymmetrically. The latitudes at which these bands appear depend on the stellar rotation period with fast rotators displaying higher latitude bands than slow rotators. The results in this paper present new constraints for future dynamo studies. [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]

Context. The large-scalemagnetic field of solar-type stars reconstructed from their spectropolarimetric observations provide important insight into their underlying dynamo processes. Aims. We aim to investigate the temporal variability of the large-scale surface magnetic field and chromospheric activity of a young solar analogue, the G0 dwarf HN Peg. Methods. The large-scale surface magnetic field topology is reconstructed using Zeeman Doppler imaging at six observational epochs covering seven years. We also investigated the chromospheric activity variations by measuring the flux in the line cores of the three chromospheric activity indicators: Ca II H&K, Ha, and the Ca II IRT lines. Results. The magnetic topology of HN Peg shows a complex and variable geometry. While the radial field exhibits a stable positive polarity magnetic region at the poles at each observational epoch, the azimuthal field is strongly variable in strength, where a strong band of positive polarity magnetic field is present at equatorial latitudes. This field disappears during the middle of our timespan, reappearing again during the last two epochs of observations. The mean magnetic field derived from the magnetic maps also follow a similar trend to the toroidal field, with the field strength at a minimum in epoch 2009.54. Summing the line of sight magnetic field over the visible surface at each observation, HN Peg exhibits a weak longitudinal magnetic field (B1) ranging from -14 G to 13 G, with no significant long-term trend, although there is significant rotational variability within each epoch. Those chromospheric activity indicators exhibit more long-term variations over the time span of observations, where the minimal is observed in Epoch 2008.71. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate how the observed large-scale surface magnetic fields of low-mass stars (∼0.1–2 M⊙), reconstructed through Zeeman–Doppler imaging, vary with age t, rotation and X-ray emission. Our sample consists of 104 magnetic maps of 73 stars, from accreting pre-main sequence to main-sequence objects (1 Myr ≲ t ≲ 10 Gyr). For non-accreting dwarfs we empirically find that the unsigned average large-scale surface field is related to age as t−0.655 ± 0.045. This relation has a similar dependence to that identified by Skumanich, used as the basis for gyrochronology. Likewise, our relation could be used as an age-dating method (‘magnetochronology’). The trends with rotation we find for the large-scale stellar magnetism are consistent with the trends found from Zeeman broadening measurements (sensitive to large- and small-scale fields). These similarities indicate that the fields recovered from both techniques are coupled to each other, suggesting that small- and large-scale fields could share the same dynamo field generation processes. For the accreting objects, fewer statistically significant relations are found, with one being a correlation between the unsigned magnetic flux and rotation period. We attribute this to a signature of star–disc interaction, rather than being driven by the dynamo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present here the final results of the first spectropolarimetric survey of a small sample of active M dwarfs, aimed at providing observational constraints on dynamo action on both sides of the full-convection threshold (spectral type M4). Our two previous studies were focused on early and mid M dwarfs. The present paper examines 11 fully convective late M dwarfs (spectral types M5–M8). Tomographic imaging techniques were applied to time-series of circularly polarized profiles of six stars, in order to infer their large-scale magnetic topologies. For three other stars we could not produce such magnetic maps, because of low variability of the Stokes V signatures, but were able to derive some properties of the magnetic fields. We find two distinct categories of magnetic topologies: on the one hand strong axisymmetric dipolar fields (similar to mid M dwarfs), and on the other hand weak fields generally featuring a significant non-axisymmetric component, and sometimes a significant toroidal one. Comparison with unsigned magnetic fluxes demonstrates that the second category of magnetic fields shows less organization (less energy in the large scales), similarly to partly convective early M dwarfs. Stars in both categories have similar stellar parameters, our data do not evidence a separation between these two categories in the mass–rotation plane. We also report marginal detection of a large-scale magnetic field on the M8 star VB 10 featuring a significant toroidal axisymmetric component, whereas no field is detectable on VB 8 (M7). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present here additional results of a spectropolarimetric survey of a small sample of stars ranging from spectral type M0 to M8 aimed at investigating observationally how dynamo processes operate in stars on both sides of the full convection threshold (spectral type M4). The present paper focuses on early M stars (M0–M3), that is above the full convection threshold. Applying tomographic imaging techniques to time series of rotationally modulated circularly polarized profiles collected with the NARVAL spectropolarimeter, we determine the rotation period and reconstruct the large-scale magnetic topologies of six early M dwarfs. We find that early-M stars preferentially host large-scale fields with dominantly toroidal and non-axisymmetric poloidal configurations, along with significant differential rotation (and long-term variability); only the lowest-mass star of our subsample is found to host an almost fully poloidal, mainly axisymmetric large-scale field resembling those found in mid-M dwarfs. This abrupt change in the large-scale magnetic topologies of M dwarfs (occurring at spectral type M3) has no related signature on X-ray luminosities (measuring the total amount of magnetic flux); it thus suggests that underlying dynamo processes become more efficient at producing large-scale fields (despite producing the same flux) at spectral types later than M3. We suspect that this change relates to the rapid decrease in the radiative cores of low-mass stars and to the simultaneous sharp increase of the convective turnover times (with decreasing stellar mass) that models predict to occur at M3; it may also be (at least partly) responsible for the reduced magnetic braking reported for fully convective stars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From observations collected with the ESPaDOnS and NARVAL spectropolarimeters, we report the detection of Zeeman signatures on the classical T Tauri star (cTTS) BP Tau. Circular polarization signatures in photospheric lines and in narrow emission lines tracing magnetospheric accretion are monitored throughout most of the rotation cycle of BP Tau at two different epochs in 2006. We observe that rotational modulation dominates the temporal variations of both unpolarized and circularly polarized spectral proxies tracing the photosphere and the footpoints of accretion funnels. From the complete data sets at each epoch, we reconstruct the large-scale magnetic topology and the location of accretion spots at the surface of BP Tau using tomographic imaging. We find that the field of BP Tau involves a 1.2 kG dipole and 1.6 kG octupole, both slightly tilted with respect to the rotation axis. Accretion spots coincide with the two main magnetic poles at high latitudes and overlap with dark photospheric spots; they cover about 2 per cent of the stellar surface. The strong mainly axisymmetric poloidal field of BP Tau is very reminiscent of magnetic topologies of fully convective dwarfs. It suggests that magnetic fields of fully convective cTTSs such as BP Tau are likely not fossil remants, but rather result from vigorous dynamo action operating within the bulk of their convective zones. Preliminary modelling suggests that the magnetosphere of BP Tau extends to distances of at least to ensure that accretion spots are located at high latitudes, and is not blown open close to the surface by a putative stellar wind. It apparently succeeds in coupling to the accretion disc as far out as the corotation radius, and could possibly explain the slow rotation of BP Tau. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report in this paper phase-resolved spectropolarimetric observations of the rapidly rotating fully convective M4 dwarf V374 Peg, on which a strong, mainly axisymmetric, large-scale poloidal magnetic field was recently detected. In addition to the original data set secured in 2005 August, we present here new data collected in 2005 September and 2006 August. From the rotational modulation of unpolarized line profiles, we conclude that star-spots are present at the surface of the star, but their contrast and fractional coverage are much lower than those of non-fully convective active stars with similar rotation rate. Applying tomographic imaging on each set of circularly polarized profiles separately, we find that the large-scale magnetic topology is remarkably stable on a time-scale of 1 yr; repeating the analysis on the complete data set suggests that the magnetic configuration is sheared by very weak differential rotation (about 1/10th of the solar surface shear) and only slightly distorted by intrinsic variability. This result is at odds with various theoretical predictions, suggesting that dynamo fields of fully convective stars should be mostly non-axisymmetric unless they succeed at triggering significant differential rotation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the discovery of a medium-strength (∼0.5 kG) magnetic field on the young, massive star τ Sco (B0.2 V), which becomes the third-hottest magnetic star known. Circularly polarized Zeeman signatures are clearly detected in observations collected mostly with the ESPaDOnS spectropolarimeter, recently installed on the 3.6-m Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope; temporal variability is also clearly established in the polarimetry, and can be unambiguously attributed to rotational modulation with a period close to 41 d. Archival ultraviolet (UV) spectra confirm that this modulation repeats over time-scales of decades, and refine the rotation period to 41.033 ± 0.002 d. Despite the slow rotation rate of τ Sco, we none the less succeed in reconstructing the large-scale structure of its magnetic topology. We find that the magnetic structure is unusually complex for a hot star, with significant power in spherical-harmonic modes of degree up to 5. The surface topology is dominated by a potential field, although a moderate toroidal component is probably present. We fail to detect intrinsic temporal variability of the magnetic structure over the 1.5-yr period of our spectropolarimetric observations (in agreement with the stable temporal variations of the UV spectra), and infer that any differential surface rotation must be very small. The topology of the extended magnetic field that we derive from the photospheric magnetic maps is also more complex than a global dipole, and features in particular a significantly warped torus of closed magnetic loops encircling the star (tilted at about 90° to the rotation axis), with additional, smaller, networks of closed-field lines. This topology appears to be consistent with the exceptional X-ray properties of τ Sco and also provides a natural explanation of the variability observed in wind-formed UV lines. Although we cannot completely rule out the possibility that the field is produced through dynamo processes of an exotic kind, we conclude that its magnetic field is most probably a fossil remnant from the star formation stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From observations made with the ESPaDOnS spectropolarimeter, recently installed on the 3.6-m Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope, we report the discovery of a strong magnetic field in the Of?p spectrum variable HD 191612 – only the second known magnetic O star (following θ1 Ori C). The stability of the observed Zeeman signature over four nights of observation, together with the non-rotational shape of line profiles, argues that the rotation period of HD 191612 is significantly longer than the 9-d value previously proposed. We suggest that the recently identified 538-d spectral variability period is the rotation period, in which case the observed line-of-sight magnetic field of implies a large-scale field (assumed dipolar) with a polar strength of about −1.5 kG. If confirmed, this scenario suggests that HD 191612 is, essentially, an evolved version of the near-zero-age main-sequence magnetic O star θ1 Ori C, but with an even stronger field (about 15 kG at an age similar to that of Ori C). We suggest that the rotation rate of HD 191612, which is exceptionally slow by accepted O-star standards, could be due to angular momentum dissipation through a magnetically confined wind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We are conducting a magnetic survey of a sample of about 30 spectroscopically identified Ap stars, with weak or previously undetected magnetic fields. For 28 studied stars, we have obtained 25 detections of Stokes V Zeeman signatures. Our results suggest that all Ap stars are magnetic. Further there may exist a minimum field strength for which Ap-type characteristics are produced.To search for other articles by the author(s) go to: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We describe the first results of a systematic spectropolarimetric survey of the coolest magnetic Ap stars, undertaken with the MuSiCoS spectropolarimeter, with the aim of clarifying the magnetic field and atmospheric characteristics of these enigmatic objects.To search for other articles by the author(s) go to: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]