Stable magnetic fields and changing starspots on Vega -- An ultra-deep decadal survey at Pic du Midi and OHP

TL;DR

This study provides a detailed, long-term spectropolarimetric analysis of Vega, revealing a stable fossil magnetic field alongside evolving surface spots, enhancing understanding of magnetic phenomena in A- and B-type stars.

Contribution

It presents the first ultra-deep, multi-epoch spectropolarimetric survey of Vega, combining magnetic and brightness mapping over several years to study magnetic field stability and surface activity.

Findings

Stable oblique dipole magnetic field confirmed.

Surface spots show significant positional variations over years.

No direct correlation between magnetic and brightness features found.

Abstract

Monitoring magnetic and activity variations in A- and B-type stars with ultra-weak magnetic fields is essential to understand the origin and evolution of these fields in this region of the HR diagram, with Vega standing as the prototype of this category. We collected high-resolution spectroscopic and spectropolarimetric data with SOPHIE (OHP, 2018) and with NARVAL/NEO-NARVAL (TBL, 2018, 2023, and 2024), yielding a total of 13108 individual spectra. Magnetic field maps were reconstructed using the Zeeman-Doppler Imaging method, while brightness maps were derived with a dedicated code developed for this purpose. The average magnetic field confirms a negative radial-field spot at the pole with stable strength, while the maps reveal the long-term stability of an oblique dipole together with smaller magnetic structures consistently detected across observing epochs. In contrast, brightness maps show strong variations in the location of surface spots on timescales of years, possibly shorter, although the spot contrast remains nearly unchanged between 2012, 2018, 2023, and 2024, with a normalized spectral amplitude of 0.0003. No direct correlation between magnetic and brightness features could be established in the simultaneous SOPHIE and NARVAL dataset of 2018. These results suggest that Vega hosts both a persistent fossil magnetic field and a dynamo-generated component, most likely concentrated in equatorial regions.