Stellar winds and spindown in solar type stars
Abstract
A simple model of stellar wind-induced angular momentum loss is presented in which the field is potential when the flow speed is lower than the Alfven speed, and radial when greater. The consequence, an increasing angular momentum loss rate with increasing simplicity of the magnetic geometry, is used to explain the rotational discontinuity across the Vaughan-Preston gap as due to a sudden angular momentum loss when the dynamo field switches from quadrupole to dipole geometry. Attention is given to the evolution of the internal rotation of stars as a result of surface angular momentum loss, and to recent results on solar oscillation rotational splitting which suggest that the inside of the sun is spinning faster than the surface.
- Publication:
-
Solar and Stellar Magnetic Fields: Origins and Coronal Effects
- Pub Date:
- 1983
- Bibcode:
- 1983IAUS..102..449R
- Keywords:
-
- Solar Rotation;
- Stellar Rotation;
- Stellar Winds;
- Angular Momentum;
- Solar Oscillations;
- Stellar Cores;
- Stellar Magnetic Fields;
- Stellar Structure;
- Astrophysics