Magnetized winds of M-type stars and star-planet magnetic interactions: uncertainties and modeling strategy

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Main Authors: Réville, Victor, Jasinski, Jamie M., Velli, Marco, Strugarek, Antoine, Brun, Allan Sacha, Murphy, Neil, Regoli, Leonardo H., Rouillard, Alexis, Varela, Jacobo
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Réville, Victor
Jasinski, Jamie M.
Velli, Marco
Strugarek, Antoine
Brun, Allan Sacha
Murphy, Neil
Regoli, Leonardo H.
Rouillard, Alexis
Varela, Jacobo
author_facet Réville, Victor
Jasinski, Jamie M.
Velli, Marco
Strugarek, Antoine
Brun, Allan Sacha
Murphy, Neil
Regoli, Leonardo H.
Rouillard, Alexis
Varela, Jacobo
contents M-type stars are the most common stars in the universe. They are ideal hosts for the search of exoplanets in the habitable zone (HZ), as their small size and low temperature make the HZ much closer in than their solar twins. Harboring very deep convective layers, they also usually exhibit very intense magnetic fields. Understanding their environment, in particular their coronal and wind properties, is thus very important, as they might be very different from what is observed in the solar system. The mass loss rate of M-type stars is poorly known observationally, and recent attempts to estimate it for some of them (TRAPPIST-1, Proxima Cen) can vary by an order of magnitude. In this work, we revisit the stellar wind properties of M-dwarfs in the light of the latest estimates of $\dot{M}$ through Lyman-$α$ absorption at the astropause and slingshot prominences. We outline a modeling strategy to estimate the mass loss rate, radiative loss and wind speed, with uncertainties, based on an Alfvén wave driven stellar wind model. We find that it is very likely that several TRAPPIST-1 planets lie within the Alfvén surface, which imply that these planets experience star-planet magnetic interactions (SPMI). We also find that SPMI between Proxima Cen b and its host star could be the reason of recently observed radio emissions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_01621
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Magnetized winds of M-type stars and star-planet magnetic interactions: uncertainties and modeling strategy
Réville, Victor
Jasinski, Jamie M.
Velli, Marco
Strugarek, Antoine
Brun, Allan Sacha
Murphy, Neil
Regoli, Leonardo H.
Rouillard, Alexis
Varela, Jacobo
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
M-type stars are the most common stars in the universe. They are ideal hosts for the search of exoplanets in the habitable zone (HZ), as their small size and low temperature make the HZ much closer in than their solar twins. Harboring very deep convective layers, they also usually exhibit very intense magnetic fields. Understanding their environment, in particular their coronal and wind properties, is thus very important, as they might be very different from what is observed in the solar system. The mass loss rate of M-type stars is poorly known observationally, and recent attempts to estimate it for some of them (TRAPPIST-1, Proxima Cen) can vary by an order of magnitude. In this work, we revisit the stellar wind properties of M-dwarfs in the light of the latest estimates of $\dot{M}$ through Lyman-$α$ absorption at the astropause and slingshot prominences. We outline a modeling strategy to estimate the mass loss rate, radiative loss and wind speed, with uncertainties, based on an Alfvén wave driven stellar wind model. We find that it is very likely that several TRAPPIST-1 planets lie within the Alfvén surface, which imply that these planets experience star-planet magnetic interactions (SPMI). We also find that SPMI between Proxima Cen b and its host star could be the reason of recently observed radio emissions.
title Magnetized winds of M-type stars and star-planet magnetic interactions: uncertainties and modeling strategy
topic Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.01621