Activity correlation and temporal variation of small-scale magnetic fields on young Sun-like stars

TL;DR

This study investigates how small-scale magnetic fields on young Sun-like stars vary over time and how these variations correlate with other activity indicators, demonstrating the potential of Zeeman measurements to monitor stellar magnetic activity.

Contribution

The paper demonstrates that Zeeman broadening measurements can effectively trace small-scale magnetic field variability and recover stellar rotation periods in young Sun-like stars.

Findings

Rotational modulation detected on two stars.

Positive correlation between magnetic field and activity indices.

Measurement precision limits detection of magnetic variations.

Abstract

We aim to evaluate how well the variation of small-scale magnetic fields on the stellar surface can be monitored with time-series observations. Further, we aim to establish to what extent the measured total unsigned magnetic field traces other activity indicators. We measured the total unsigned magnetic field on four young, stars using Zeeman splitting of magnetically sensitive spectral lines from high-resolution spectra obtained with the spectropolarimeters ESPaDOnS at CFHT and NARVAL at TBL. We then characterised the magnetic field variations using both sinusoidal variation and Lomb-Scargle periodograms. We evaluated how the rotational variation of the total unsigned magnetic field strength correlates with the activity indicators S-index, H$\alpha$-index, Ca IRT-index, and the large-scale magnetic field obtained from ZDI maps obtained in earlier studies. We find clear signals of rotational modulation of the total magnetic field on HIP 76768 and tentative detection on Mel 25-5. This is supported both by the sinusoidal fitting and the periodogram. For the other stars, we find no modulation signals of the total magnetic field. We find positive correlations between the total magnetic field and activity indices on all four stars, indicating that indirect magnetic activity indicators trace the underlying magnetic field variability. However, comparing the activity-magnetic field relationship between the stars in our sample shows a significant deviation between activity level and measured magnetic field strength. Small-scale magnetic field variability can be traced using the Zeeman effect on magnetically sensitive lines, provided that the star is sufficiently active. It is also possible to self-consistently recover rotational periods from such measurements. The primary limit for the detection of magnetic field variations is the precision of Zeeman broadening and intensification measurements.