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A fossil origin for the magnetic fields of A-stars and white dwarfs

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arxiv astro-ph/0502043 v1 pith:SPVMEV5D submitted 2005-02-02 astro-ph

classification astro-ph
keywords fieldstarsfieldsmagneticstarfossilconfigurationsdwarfs
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal
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Some main-sequence stars of spectral type A are observed to have a strong (300-30000 G), static, large-scale magnetic field, of a chiefly dipolar shape -- the `Ap stars' (for example Alioth, the fifth star in the Big Dipper). Following their discovery fifty years ago, it was speculated that these fields a remnants of the star's formation, a `fossil' field. Alternatively, they could be generated by a dynamo process in the star's convective core. The dynamo hypothesis has difficulty explaining high field strengths and the lack of a correlation with rotation. The weakness of the fossil-field theory has been the absence of known field configurations stable enough to survive in a star over its lifetime. We demonstrate here the formation of stable magnetic field configurations, with properties agreeing with those observed, by evolution from arbitrary, unstable initial fields. The results are applicable equally to Ap stars, magnetic white dwarfs and some highly magnetised neutron stars known as magnetars. This establishes fossil fields as the natural, unifying explanation for the magnetism of all these stars.

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Cited by 6 Pith papers

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