Magnetic OB[A] Stars with TESS: probing their Evolutionary and Rotational properties -- The MOBSTER Collaboration

TL;DR

This paper discusses the MOBSTER Collaboration's use of TESS data to study magnetic OB stars, aiming to understand their magnetic, rotational, and surface properties and their evolution.

Contribution

It introduces a large-scale effort to analyze TESS photometry for magnetic massive stars, providing new insights into their magnetospheric and surface phenomena.

Findings

Mapping magnetospheric plasma variations

Characterizing surface brightness inhomogeneities

Advancing models of atomic diffusion in stellar atmospheres

Abstract

In this contribution, we present the MOBSTER Collaboration, a large community effort to leverage high-precision photometry from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (\textit{TESS}) in order to characterize the variability of magnetic massive and intermediate-mass stars. These data can be used to probe the varying column density of magnetospheric plasma along the line of sight for OB stars, thus improving our understanding of the interaction between surface magnetic fields and massive star winds. They can also be used to map out the brightness inhomogeneities present on the surfaces of Ap/Bp stars, informing present models of atomic diffusion in their atmospheres. Finally, we review our current and ongoing studies, which lead to new insights on this topic.