Angular Momentum Transport in Stellar Interiors

TL;DR

This paper reviews how stars lose angular momentum during their evolution, highlights current observational findings from space asteroseismology, and proposes a data-driven approach to improve theoretical models of angular momentum transport.

Contribution

It introduces a data-driven methodology combining simulations and observations to enhance the understanding of angular momentum transport in stellar interiors.

Findings

Stars nearly rotate uniformly during core burning phases

Cores spin up significantly during the red giant phase

Core angular momentum aligns with white dwarf observations

Abstract

Stars lose a significant amount of angular momentum between birth and death, implying that efficient processes transporting it from the core to the surface are active. Space asteroseismology delivered the interior rotation rates of more than a thousand low- and intermediate-mass stars, revealing that: 1) single stars rotate nearly uniformly during the core hydrogen and core helium burning phases; 2) stellar cores spin up to a factor 10 faster than the envelope during the red giant phase; 3) the angular momentum of the helium-burning core of stars is in agreement with the angular momentum of white dwarfs. Observations reveal a strong decrease of core angular momentum when stars have a convective core. Current theory of angular momentum transport fails to explain this. We propose improving the theory with a data-driven approach, whereby angular momentum prescriptions derived from multi-dimensional (magneto)hydrodynamical simulations and theoretical considerations are continously tested against modern observations. The TESS and PLATO space missions have the potential to derive the interior rotation of large samples of stars, including high-mass and metal-poor stars in binaries and clusters. This will provide the powerful observational constraints needed to improve theory and simulations.