Magnetic confinement in the wind of low mass stars

Abstract

Magnetic confinement of material is observed on both high and low mass stars. On low mass stars, this confinement can be seen as slingshot prominences, in which condensations are supported several stellar radii above the surface by strong magnetic fields. We present a model for generating cooled field lines in equilibrium with the background corona, which we use to populate a model corona. We find prominence masses on the order of observationally derived values. We find two types of solutions: footpoint heavy “solar-like prominences” and summit heavy “slingshot prominences” which are centrifugally supported. These can form within the open field region i.e. embedded in the wind. We generate Hα spectra from different field structures and show that all display behaviour that is consistent with observations. This implies that the features seen in observations could be supported by a range of conditions, suggesting they would be common across rapidly rotating stars.