Direct observation of magnetic cycles in Sun-like stars

TL;DR

This study directly observes magnetic cycles in Sun-like stars using spectropolarimetry, revealing short magnetic cycles and polarity reversals that differ from previous chromospheric activity-based estimates.

Contribution

First direct detection of magnetic cycles in Sun-like stars using Zeeman-Doppler Imaging, showing shorter cycles and multiple magnetic timescales.

Findings

Short magnetic cycles observed in several stars.

Polarity reversals occur over monitoring period.

Cycle lengths are shorter than previous estimates.

Abstract

A sample of 19 solar-type stars, probing masses between 0.6 and 1.4 solar mass and rotation periods between 3.4 and 43 days, was regularly observed using the NARVAL spectropolarimeter at Telescope Bernard Lyot (Pic du Midi, France) between 2007 and 2011. The Zeeman-Doppler Imaging technique is employed to reconstruct the large-scale photospheric magnetic field structure of the targets and investigate its long-term temporal evolution. We present here the first results of this project with the observation of short magnetic cycles in several stars, showing up a succession of polarity reversals over the timespan of our monitoring. Preliminary trends suggest that short cycles are more frequent for stellar periods below a dozen days and for stellar masses above about one solar mass. The cycles lengths unveiled by the direct tracking of polarity switches are significantly shorter than those derived from previous studies based on chromospheric activity monitoring, suggesting the coexistence of several magnetic timescales in a same star.