On close-in magnetized star-planet interactions

TL;DR

This paper uses 2D magnetohydrodynamic simulations to explore how magnetized stars and close-in planets interact, focusing on unipolar and dipolar scenarios, to better understand their physical effects.

Contribution

It introduces a simplified 2D MHD model for star-planet interactions that captures key qualitative behaviors, paving the way for more detailed future studies.

Findings

Qualitative behaviors are well recovered by the model

Simplified hypotheses still capture essential interaction features

Results support further development of predictive models

Abstract

We present 2D magnetohydrodynamic simulations performed with the PLUTO code to model magnetized star-planet interactions. We study two simple scenarios of magnetized star-planet interactions: the unipolar and dipolar interactions. Despite the simplified hypotheses we consider in the model, the qualitative behavior of the interactions is very well recovered. These encouraging results promote further developments of the model to obtain predictions on the effect and the physical manifestation of magnetized star--close-in planet interactions.