Magnetic field of the eclipsing binary UV Piscium

TL;DR

This study investigates the magnetic fields of both stars in the eclipsing binary UV Piscium using spectropolarimetric data, revealing detailed large-scale and small-scale magnetic structures and their strengths.

Contribution

The paper provides the first comprehensive analysis of both global and local magnetic fields of UV Psc's components using advanced spectropolarimetric techniques and Zeeman-Doppler imaging.

Findings

Large-scale magnetic fields feature strong toroidal and non-axisymmetric components.

Global magnetic field strengths are 137 G for UV Psc A and 88 G for B.

Small-scale magnetic fields are significantly stronger, averaging 2.5 kG and 2.2 kG respectively.

Abstract

The goal of this work is to study magnetic fields of the cool, eclipsing binary star UV Piscium (UV Psc). This system contains two active late-type stars, UV Psc A (G5V) and B (K3V). To obtain a complete picture, the properties of both global and local magnetic field structures are studied for both components. High-resolution intensity and circular polarisation spectra, collected in 2016 with the ESPaDOnS spectropolarimeter at the CFHT, were used to analyse the magnetic field of UV Psc. To increase the signal-to-noise ratio, the multi-line technique of least-squares deconvolution (LSD) was used to obtain average Stokes IV profiles. Then, a Zeeman-Doppler imaging (ZDI) code was employed to obtain the large-scale magnetic field topology and brightness distribution for both components of UV Psc. In addition, the small-scale magnetic fields, not visible to ZDI, were studied using the Zeeman intensification of Fe I lines. Maps of the surface magnetic field for both components of UV Psc were obtained, the large-scale magnetic fields feature strong toroidal and non-axisymetric components. UV Psc A and B have average global field strengths of 137 G and 88 G, respectively. The small-scale fields are notably stronger, with average strengths of 2.5 and 2.2 kG, respectively. Our results are in agreement with previous studies of partly-convective stars. Overall, UV Psc A has a stronger magnetic field compared to UV Psc B. Due to the eclipsing binary geometry, certain magnetic field features are not detectable using circular polarisation only. An investigation into theoretical linear polarisation profiles shows that they could be used to reveal antisymmetric components of the magnetic field. This result also has implications for the study of exoplanetary transit hosts.