The Magnetic Early B-type Stars I: Magnetometry and Rotation

TL;DR

This study characterizes the magnetic and rotational properties of 52 early B-type stars, revealing their rotational periods, magnetic field structures, and the effects of magnetism on stellar rotation and chemical spots.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive magnetic and rotational analysis for a large sample of early B-type stars, including new measurements and insights into magnetic field complexity and chemical spot effects.

Findings

Rotational periods determined for 10 stars, refined for 14.

Magnetic stars exhibit lower $v ext{sin}i$ and $v_{ ext{mac}}$ compared to non-magnetic stars.

Evidence of complex magnetic field structures beyond simple dipoles in 6 stars.

Abstract

The rotational and magnetic properties of many magnetic hot stars are poorly characterized, therefore the MiMeS and BinaMIcS collaborations have collected extensive high-dispersion spectropolarimetric datasets of these targets. We present longitudinal magnetic field measurements $\langle B_{\rm z}\rangle$ for 52 early B-type stars (B5 to B0), with which we attempt to determine their rotational periods $P_{\rm rot}$. Supplemented with high-resolution spectroscopy, low-resolution DAO circular spectropolarimetry, and archival Hipparcos photometry, we determined $P_{\rm rot}$ for 10 stars, leaving only 5 stars for which $P_{\rm rot}$ could not be determined. Rotational ephemerides for 14 stars were refined via comparison of new to historical magnetic measurements. The distribution of $P_{\rm rot}$ is very similar to that observed for the cooler Ap/Bp stars. We also measured $v\sin{i}$ and $v_{\rm mac}$ for all stars. Comparison to non-magnetic stars shows that $v\sin{i}$ is much lower for magnetic stars, an expected consequence of magnetic braking. We also find evidence that $v_{\rm mac}$ is lower for magnetic stars. LSD profiles extracted using single-element masks revealed widespread, systematic discrepancies in $\langle B_{\rm z}\rangle$ between different elements: this effect is apparent only for chemically peculiar stars, suggesting it is a consequence of chemical spots. Sinusoidal fits to H line $\langle B_{\rm z}\rangle$ measurements (which should be minimally affected by chemical spots), yielded evidence of surface magnetic fields more complex than simple dipoles in 6 stars for which this has not previously been reported; however, in all 6 cases the second- and third-order amplitudes are small relative to the first-order (dipolar) amplitudes.