MOST OBSERVATIONS OF σ Ori E: CHALLENGING THE CENTRIFUGAL BREAKOUT NARRATIVE
Creators
- 1. Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2535 Sterling Hall, 475 N. Charter Street, Madison, WI 53706 (United States)
- 2. ESO-European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere, Casilla 19001, Santiago 19 (Chile)
- 3. NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States)
- 4. Départment de physique, Université de Montréal C.P. 6128, Succursale Centre-Ville, Montréal, QC H3C 3J7 (Canada)
- 5. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, 6224 Agricultural Road, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1 (Canada)
- 6. National Research Council of Canada, Herzberg Institue of Astrophysics, 5071 West Saanich Road, Victoria, BC V9E 2E7 (Canada)
- 7. LESIA, UMR 8109 du CNRS, Observatoire de Paris, UPMC, Université Paris Diderot, 5 place Jules Janssen, 92195 Meudon Cedex (France)
- 8. Nordic Optical Telescope, Apartado 474, 38700 Santa Cruze de La Palma (Spain)
- 9. Department of Astronomy and Physics, St. Marys University, Halifax, NS B3H 3C3 (Canada)
- 10. Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto, 50 St George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3H4 (Canada)
- 11. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
- 12. Institute for Astronomy, University of Vienna, Türkenschanzstrasse 17, A-1180 Vienna (Austria)
Description
We present results from three weeks' photometric monitoring of the magnetic helium-strong star σ Ori E using the Microvariability and Oscillations of Stars microsatellite. The star's light curve is dominated by twice-per-rotation eclipse-like dimmings arising when magnetospheric clouds transit across and occult the stellar disk. However, no evidence is found for any abrupt centrifugal breakout of plasma from the magnetosphere, either in the residual flux or in the depths of the light minima. Motivated by this finding we compare the observationally inferred magnetospheric mass against that predicted by a breakout analysis. The large discrepancy between the values leads us to argue that centrifugal breakout does not play a significant role in establishing the magnetospheric mass budget of σ Ori E.
Availability note (English)
Available from http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/769/1/33Additional details
Identifiers
Publishing Information
- Journal Title
- Astrophysical Journal
- Journal Volume
- 769
- Journal Issue
- 1
- Journal Page Range
- [5 p.]
- ISSN
- 0004-637X
- CODEN
- ASJOAB
INIS
- Country of Publication
- United States
- Country of Input or Organization
- International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
- INIS RN
- 44081725
- Subject category
- S79: ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY;
- Descriptors DEI
- COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS; ECLIPSE; HELIUM; MAGNETIC FIELDS; MASS; OSCILLATIONS; PLASMA; ROTATION; STARS
- Descriptors DEC
- ELEMENTS; EVALUATION; FLUIDS; GASES; MOTION; NONMETALS; RARE GASES