Magnetic hot giants and supergiants: The descendants of magnetic main sequence massive stars
Abstract
With the discovery of the first few magnetic hot supergiants within the BRITE spectropolarimetric (BRITEpol) survey, we have developed the Large Impact of magnetic Fields on the Evolution of hot stars (LIFE) project, which aims to detect magnetic fields in bright evolved OBA giants and supergiants to investigate the evolution of these stars from their main sequence (MS) counterparts into their late post-MS stages. We present both the BRITEpol results and current LIFE results of the survey from spectropolarimetric observations using the ESPaDOnS instrument of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. Based on these initial results, we find that the longitudinal surface magnetic field is very weak, but the field configuration resembles the ones of main sequence hot stars. A simple analysis indicates that the decreased field strength can be understood primarily in the context of magnetic flux conservation as the radius of the star expands with evolution.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #233
- Pub Date:
- January 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AAS...23336411O