Discoveries of fine structures and secondary pulses in coherent radio emission from a magnetic massive star

TL;DR

This study reports the first complete rotational observation of a magnetic B star's auroral radio emission, revealing complex secondary pulses and fine structures that provide new insights into stellar magnetospheric processes.

Contribution

It is the first to observe the full rotation cycle of the star, discovering secondary enhancements and fine structures in the radio emission, advancing understanding of stellar magnetospheres and emission mechanisms.

Findings

Detection of secondary 'off-pulse' emissions with opposite circular polarizations.

Discovery of fine structures in the radio pulses with 8-second timescales.

Confirmation of persistent RCP emission from the star.

Abstract

In this paper, we report auroral radio emission from a magnetic B star HD 142990 using the MeerKAT radio telescope at $900-1670$ MHz. The star is known to produce such emission (observed as periodic radio pulses) via electron cyclotron maser emission (ECME). However, past studies on ECME from this star were confined to observations at specific rotational phase ranges where one expects to see such pulses. We, for the first time, observed the star for its one complete rotation cycle and discovered that the star also produces 'off-pulse' emission, which we term as secondary enhancements. Two such enhancements were observed, one of which is left circularly polarized (LCP) and the other is right circularly polarized (RCP), the latter is confirmed to be persistent. Using simulation, we infer that such pulses are likely related to the large misalignment between the stellar rotation and magnetic dipole axes ($>80^\circ$), leading to the formation of highly complex magnetospheric plasma distribution. In addition, by extracting dynamic spectra for the primary pulses, we discovered prominent fine structures in one of the LCP pulses, with timescales as small as the instrumental time resolution (8 seconds). This is the first time that such structures are seen from a magnetic hot star, and has the potential to reveal detailed information about how the emission is driven, and the nature of the elementary sources of radiation. To pinpoint the origin of these fine structures and their significance, higher time and spectral resolution observations should be conducted in the future.