The relation between stellar magnetic field geometry and chromospheric activity cycles I: The highly variable field of Epsilon Eridani at activity minimum

Abstract

The young and magnetically active K dwarf Epsilon Eridani exhibits a chromospheric activity cycle of about 3 years. Previous reconstructions of its large-scale magnetic field show strong variations at yearly epochs. To understand how Epsilon Eridani's large-scale magnetic field geometry evolves over its activity cycle we focus on high cadence observations spanning 5 months at its activity minimum. Over this timespan we reconstruct 3 maps of Epsilon Eridani's large-scale magnetic field using the tomographic technique of Zeeman Doppler Imaging. The results show that at the minimum of its cycle, Epsilon Eridani's large-scale field is more complex than the simple dipolar structure of the Sun and 61 Cyg A at minimum. Additionally we observe a surprisingly rapid regeneration of a strong axisymmetric toroidal field as Epsilon Eridani emerges from its S-index activity minimum. Our results show that all stars do not exhibit the same field geometry as the Sun and this will be an important constraint for the dynamo models of active solar-type stars.

6 pages, accepted by MNRAS

References in corpus (3)

• The surprising magnetic topology of tauSco: fossil remnant or dynamo output?
• Magnetic Activity Cycles in the Exoplanet Host Star epsilon Eridani
• The radii of the nearby K5V and K7V stars 61 Cyg A & B - CHARA/FLUOR interferometry and CESAM2k modeling

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