MAGNETOSTATIC MODELS OF STARSPOTS

  • YUN HONG SIK (Department of Astronomy, Seoul National University) ;
  • PARK JONG-SUH (Department of Astronomy, Seoul National University)
  • Published : 1993.10.01

Abstract

Magnetostatic models of starspots of late type main sequence stars$(G5V\~K5V)$ have been constructed to investigate their physical characteristics by using the similarity law suggested by Schluter and Temesvary(1958) and later employed by Deinzer(1965) and Yun(1968). The starspots are assumed to be single, circular and in horizontal magnetostatic equilibrium. In the present study we considered only those model spots whose area covers less than $12\%$ of the entire stellar surface as suggested by observations. The computed surface field strength of our model spots ranges from $10^3$\;to\;several\;10^3$ gauss and their magnetic flux is found to be $10\~100$ times that of sunspots. The field strength is sensitive to spectral type, which increases with later spectral type. In contrast to the field strength, the area of starspots depends strongly on the total magnetic flux. Finally, it is noted that the computed field strength of model spots belonging to $G0V\~G5V$ falls below the equipartition field strength at their parent stellar surface unless the coverage is less than $2\%$. This suggests that the observed spot on $G0V\~G5V$ stars is likely to be a group of small starspots.

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