Stellar magnetic activity and their influence on the habitability of exoplanets

TL;DR

This paper reviews how stellar magnetic activity influences exoplanet habitability, emphasizing recent observational and theoretical advances in modeling stellar magnetic fields, winds, and their effects on planetary environments.

Contribution

It introduces a research network focusing on the observational and theoretical assessment of stellar magnetic fields and winds related to planetary habitability.

Findings

Advances in polarimetry enable detailed magnetic field mapping.

Modeling of stellar winds has improved with new simulations.

Stellar rotation is linked to magnetic activity and wind properties.

Abstract

Stellar magnetism, explorable via polarimetry, is a crucial driver of activity, ionization, photodissociation, chemistry and winds in stellar environments. Thus it has an important impact on the atmospheres and magnetospheres of surrounding planets. Modeling of stellar magnetic fields and their winds is extremely challenging, both from the observational and the theoretical points of view, and only recent ground breaking advances in observational instrumentation - as were discussed during this Symposium - and a deeper theoretical understanding of magnetohydrodynamic processes in stars enable us to model stellar magnetic fields and winds and the resulting influence on surrounding planets in more and more detail. We have initiated a national and international research network (NFN): 'Pathways to Habitability - From Disks to Active Stars, Planets to Life', to address questions on the formation and habitability of environments in young, active stellar/planetary systems. In this contribution we discuss the work we are carrying out within this project and focus on how stellar magnetic fields, their winds and the relation to stellar rotation can be assessed observationally with relevant techniques such as Zeeman Doppler Imaging (ZDI), field extrapolation and wind simulations.