Open AccessMapping potential fields on the surfaces of rapidly rotating stars
Author(s) -
Hussain G. A. J.,
Jardine M.,
Collier Cameron A.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.058
H-Index - 383
eISSN - 1365-2966
pISSN - 0035-8711
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-8711.2001.04149.x
Subject(s) - physics , component (thermodynamics) , stars , surface (topology) , field (mathematics) , flux (metallurgy) , astrophysics , vector field , topology (electrical circuits) , geometry , mechanics , mathematics , materials science , combinatorics , pure mathematics , metallurgy , thermodynamics
We present a technique that combines Zeeman Doppler imaging (ZDI) principles with a potential field mapping prescription in order to gain more information about the surface field topology of rapid rotators. This technique is an improvement on standard ZDI, which can sometimes suffer from the suppression of one vector component because of the effects of stellar inclination, poor phase coverage or lack of flux from dark areas on the surface. Defining a relationship between the different vector components allows information from one component to compensate for reduced information in another. We present simulations demonstrating the capability of this technique and discuss its prospects.