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Investigating stellar surface rotation using observations of starspots

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2012

Heidi Korhonen
Heidi Korhonen*
Affiliation:
Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Juliane Maries Vej 30, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark email: heidi.korhonen@nbi.ku.dk Finnish Centre for Astronomy with ESO (FINCA), University of Turku, Väisäläntie 20, FI-21500 Piikkiö, Finland Centre for Star and Planet Formation, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 5-7, DK-1350, Copenhagen, Denmark
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Abstract

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Rapid rotation enhances the dynamo operating in stars, and thus also introduces significantly stronger magnetic activity than is seen in slower rotators. Many young cool stars still have the rapid, primordial rotation rates induced by the interstellar molecular cloud from which they were formed. Also older stars in close binary systems are often rapid rotators. These types of stars can show strong magnetic activity and large starspots. In the case of large starspots which cause observable changes in the brightness of the star, and even in the shapes of the spectral line profiles, one can get information on the rotation of the star. At times even information on the spot rotation at different stellar latitudes can be obtained, similarly to the solar surface differential rotation measurements using magnetic features as tracers. Here, I will review investigations of stellar rotation based on starspots. I will discuss what we can obtain from ground-based photometry and how that improves with the uninterrupted, high precision, observations from space. The emphasis will be on how starspots, and even stellar surface differential rotation, can be studied using high resolution spectra.

Keywords

stars: activitystars: late-typestars: rotationstars: spots
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 7 , Symposium S286: Comparative Magnetic Minima: Characterizing quiet times in the Sun and Stars , October 2011 , pp. 268 - 278
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2012

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