A new look at the relationship between activity, dynamo number and Rossby number in late‐type stars

The correlation between stellar activity, as measured by the indicator Δ R HK , and the Rossby number Ro in late‐type stars is revisited in light of recent developments in solar dynamo theory. Different stellar interior models, based on both mixing‐length theory and the full spectrum of turbulence, are used in order to see to what extent the correlation of activity with Rossby number is model dependent, or otherwise can be considered universal. Although we find some modest model dependence, we find that the correlation of activity with Rossby number is significantly better than with rotation period alone for all the models we consider. Dynamo theory suggests that activity should scale with the dynamo number. A current model of the solar dynamo, the so‐called interface dynamo, proposes that the amplification of the toroidal magnetic field by differential rotation (the ω ‐effect) and the production of the poloidal magnetic field from toroidal by helical turbulence (the α ‐effect) take place in different, adjacent layers near the base of the convection zone. A new scale analysis based on the interface dynamo shows that the appropriate dynamo number does not depend on the Rossby number alone, but also depends on an additional dimensionless factor related to the differential rotation. This leads to a new interpretation of the correlation between activity and Rossby number, which in turn leads to some conclusions about the magnitude of differential rotation in the dynamo layers of late‐type main‐sequence stars.