Saturation of Stellar Winds from Young Suns

TL;DR

This study uses magnetohydrodynamical simulations to explore how stellar wind mass loss rates from sun-like stars saturate at high activity levels due to radiative losses, impacting stellar evolution and the faint young sun paradox.

Contribution

It provides a new saturation model for stellar wind mass loss rates based on energetics and magnetic activity, with a derived scaling relation and evolutionary predictions.

Findings

Mass loss rate saturates at high activity levels due to radiative losses.

Saturation level correlates with magnetic field strength and flux tube filling factor.

Mass loss evolution is shallower than previous estimates, affecting stellar evolution models.

Abstract

We investigate mass losses via stellar winds from sun-like main sequence stars with a wide range of activity levels. We perform forward-type magnetohydrodynamical numerical experiments for Alfven wave-driven stellar winds with a wide range of the input Poynting flux from the photosphere. Increasing the magnetic field strength and the turbulent velocity at the stellar photosphere from the current solar level, the mass loss rate rapidly increases at first owing to the suppression of the reflection of the Alfven waves. The surface materials are lifted up by the magnetic pressure associated with the Alfven waves, and the cool dense chromosphere is intermittently extended to 10 -- 20 % of the stellar radius. The dense atmospheres enhance the radiative losses and eventually most of the input Poynting energy from the stellar surface escapes by the radiation. As a result, there is no more sufficient energy remained for the kinetic energy of the wind; the stellar wind saturates in very active stars, as observed in Wood et al. The saturation level is positively correlated with B_{r,0}f_0, where B_{r,0} and f_0 are the magnetic field strength and the filling factor of open flux tubes at the photosphere. If B_{r,0}f_0 is relatively large >~ 5 G, the mass loss rate could be as high as 1000 times. If such a strong mass loss lasts for ~ 1 billion years, the stellar mass itself is affected, which could be a solution to the faint young sun paradox. We derive a Reimers-type scaling relation that estimates the mass loss rate from the energetics consideration of our simulations. Finally, we derive the evolution of the mass loss rates, \dot{M} t^{-1.23}, of our simulations, combining with an observed time evolution of X-ray flux from sun-like stars, which is shallower than \dot{M} t^{-2.33+/-0.55} in Wood et al.(2005).