학술논문

Finding magnetic north: an extraordinary magnetic field detection in Polaris and first results of a magnetic survey of classical Cepheids.
Document Type
Article
Source
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 5/30/2022, Vol. 512 Issue 3, p4021-4030. 10p.
Subject
*MAGNETIC fields
*CEPHEIDS
*STELLAR evolution
*CIRCULAR polarization
*STELLAR magnetic fields
*MAGNETIC properties
*POLARIMETRY
Language
ISSN
0035-8711
Abstract
Classical Cepheids are essential objects in the study of stellar evolution and cosmology; however, we know little about their magnetic properties. We report the detection of Stokes V features interpreted as Zeeman signatures in four classical Cepheids using high-resolution spectropolarimetric observations obtained with ESPaDOnS at the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope. Eight observations of η Aql were acquired in 2017 covering its 7.2 d pulsation period, and single observations of Polaris, ζ Gem, δ Cep, and RT Aur were obtained in 2020 as part of our ongoing systematic survey. We use mean circular polarization Stokes  V profiles generated using the least-squares deconvolution procedure to diagnose Zeeman signatures and measure mean longitudinal field strengths 〈 Bz 〉. We detect magnetic signatures across all pulsation phases of η Aql (−0.89 ± 0.47 G |$\, \lt \langle B_{z}\rangle \lt 1.27\pm 0.40$|  G), as well as in the single observations of Polaris (0.59 ± 0.16 G), ζ Gem (0.41 ± 0.16 G), and δ Cep (0.43 ± 0.19 G). The Stokes  V profile of Polaris is detected at extremely high signal-to-noise ratio and implies a complex magnetic field topology. It stands in stark contrast to all other detected Stokes  V profiles, which show unusual approximately unipolar positive circular polarization lobes analogous to those observed in some Am stars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]