Evolution of rotation and magnetic activity of the Sun and solar-like stars from photometric data
Speaker: Savita Mathur
May 9, 2023 11:00 PDT
While the magnetic activity of the Sun has been studied for many decades, our current knowledge of the detailed processes at play in the solar dynamo is still incomplete, as seen for instance with the difficulty to predict lengths and strengths of future solar cycles. The importance of studying magnetic activity in other stars in order to put the Sun in context was understood several decades ago with the Mount Wilson survey.
With the photometric data collected by space missions such as CoRoT, Kepler/K2, and TESS, it is possible to progress on the study of rotation and magnetic activity for a large number of stars. These studies can be done based on spot modulation and thanks to asteroseismology. With the Kepler mission, by combining asteroseismic ages and rotation periods, the rotation-age (or gyrochronology) relations doe not seem to hold for stars older than the Sun, opening new questions on stellar dynamics evolution.
In this talk, I will focus on solar-like stars (including solar analogs) where rotation and magnetism could be measured with photometric data. I will show how the photometric data collected by Kepler is providing key information on the understanding of angular momentum transport and magnetic activity in stars with age and as a function of spectral type thanks. I will show how we can derive rotation-magnetic activity-age relations thanks to such data. Finally, I will compare the Sun to solar-like stars in terms of magnetic activity.