Spindown of massive rotating stars

Models of rapidly rotating massive stars at low metallicities show significantly different evolution and higher metal yields compared to non-rotating stars. We estimate the spin-down time-scale of rapid rotating non-convective stars supporting an alpha-Omega dynamo. The magnetic dynamo gives rise to...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2011-03
Main Authors: Herbert Ho Bun Lau, Potter, Adrian T, Tout, Christopher A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Angular momentum
Massive stars
Stability
Stars
Stellar evolution
Stellar rotation
Stellar winds
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Models of rapidly rotating massive stars at low metallicities show significantly different evolution and higher metal yields compared to non-rotating stars. We estimate the spin-down time-scale of rapid rotating non-convective stars supporting an alpha-Omega dynamo. The magnetic dynamo gives rise to mass loss in a magnetically controlled stellar wind and hence stellar spin down owing to loss of angular momentum. The dynamo is maintained by strong horizontal rotation-driven turbulence which dominates over the Parker instability. We calculate the spin-down time-scale and find that it could be relatively short, a small fraction of the main-sequence lifetime. The spin-down time-scale decreases dramatically for higher surface rotations suggesting that rapid rotators may only exhibit such high surface velocities for a short time, only a small fraction of their main-sequence lifetime.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.1103.5481