Long-term evolution of the large-scale magnetic fields of cool stars
Résumé
We investigate how the large-scale surface magnetic fields of cool dwarf stars, reconstructed using the Zeeman-Doppler Imaging (ZDI) technique, vary with age, rotation period, Rossby number and X-ray emission. Our sample consists of 104 magnetic maps of 76 stars, from accreting pre-main sequence to main-sequence objects, spanning ages from ~1 Myr to ~10 Gyr. For non-accreting dwarfs we empirically find that the unsigned average large-scale surface magnetic field relates to age as age-0.65. This relation has a similar power dependency to that identified in the seminal work of Skumanich (1972). We also find in our data evidence for a linear-type dynamo, in which the surface field is linearly dependent on the rotation rate. The trends we find for large-scale stellar magnetism from ZDI studies are consistent with the trends found from Zeeman broadening measurements, which are sensitive to the unsigned large- and small-scale magnetic field. These similarities indicate that the fields recovered from both techniques are coupled to each other, suggesting that small- and large-scale fields could share the same dynamo field generation processes. Our results are relevant for investigations of rotational evolution of low-mass stars and give important observational constraints for stellar dynamo studies.