RADIO STARS and THEIR LIVES in the GALAXY Lynn D
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Accepted to PASP A Preprint typeset using LTEX style emulateapj v. 12/16/11 RADIO STARS AND THEIR LIVES IN THE GALAXY Lynn D. Matthews1 Accepted to PASP ABSTRACT This paper summarizes the three-day international workshop Radio Stars and Their Lives in the Galaxy, held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Haystack Observatory on 2012 October 3-5. The workshop was organized to provide a forum for the presentation and discussion of advances in stellar and solar astrophysics recently (or soon to be) enabled by the latest generation of state-of-the- art observational facilities operating from meter to submillimeter wavelengths. The meeting brought together both observers and theorists to discuss how radio wavelength observations are providing new and unique insights into the workings of stars and their role in the Galactic ecosystem. Topics covered included radio emission from hot and cool stars (from the pre- to post-main-sequence), the Sun as a radio star, circumstellar chemistry, planetary nebulae, white dwarf binaries and novae, supernova progenitors, and radio stars as probes of the Galaxy. Subject headings: meeting summary, Stars — stars: AGB and post-AGB – stars: winds, outflows – circumstellar matter – radio lines: stars 1. BACKGROUND AND MOTIVATION FOR THE precision astrometry, and the routine study of sources at WORKSHOP a level of a few tens of µJy. We also heard how develop- Radio emission has now been detected from stars ments in theory, modeling, and laboratory astrophysics across the entire Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R) diagram, are improving our ability to interpret results. This paper spanning virtually every stage of stellar evolution. The attempts to summarize a sampling of the diverse array recent commissioning of a host of new and upgraded ob- topics presented and discussed at the Haystack work- servational facilities operating at wavelengths spanning shop. from the meter to the submillimeter has been leading 2. SCIENTIFIC SESSIONS to a rapid pace of discoveries in nearly every branch of stellar astrophysics. Motivated by these advances, a 3- The science program of the Haystack Radio Stars work- day workshop entitled “Radio Stars and Their Lives in shop comprised 33 oral presentations (13 invited reviews the Galaxy” was convened at the Massachusetts Institute and 20 contributed talks) and 7 posters. The com- of Technology (MIT) Haystack Observatory in Westford, plete program and presentation abstracts are available at Massachusetts on 2012 October 3-5. The workshop drew http://www.haystack.mit.edu/workshop/Radio-Stars/. a total of 50 participants from four continents and 13 The workshop was organized into seven scientific ses- countries and brought together both theorists and ob- sions: (I) An Overview of Stellar Radio Astronomy; (II) servers to participate in a program of oral presentations, Radio Emission from Pre-Main Sequence Stars; (III) Ra- posters, and discussions. The scientific program was de- dio Emission on the Main Sequence; (IV) Post-Main vised to bring together stellar astrophysicists from a va- Sequence Radio Stars; (V) Stellar Remnants; (VI) Ra- riety of sub-disciplines to stimulate cross-fertilization of dio Stars as Players in our Galaxy; (VII) Summary and ideas on unsolved problems common to the study of many Perspectives. This summary paper loosely follows this classes of stellar objects (e.g., mass loss, the driving of organization, but also attempts to synthesize recurrent bipolar outflows, and the generation of magnetic fields). themes and topics that spanned multiple sessions. In The first international workshop on Radio Stars took addition to summarizing new results presented by par- place in Ottawa, Canada in June 1979, at which time the ticipants, I strive to draw attention to topics where there discipline of stellar radio astronomy was approximately a was a consensus that our understanding is still limited, decade old (Feldman & Kwok 1979). The Very Large Ar- where controversies persist, and/or where future investi- ray (VLA) had not yet been commissioned, hence avail- gations are likely to prove fruitful. I close with a sum- able data were largely limited to single-dish flux den- mary of concerns and future challenges raised during the sity measurements at centimetric wavelengths without final discussion session. the advantages of imaging. Thirty-three years later, the 3. AN OVERVIEW OF STELLAR RADIO ASTRONOMY Haystack workshop made abundantly clear that stellar radio astronomy remains a vibrant field that is witnessing M. G¨udel (University of Vienna) opened the workshop a rapid pace of advances relevant to many of the most im- with a comprehensive overview of the versatility of the portant topics in stellar astrophysics. We witnessed how radio spectrum for understanding physical processes in new technologies are bringing dramatic advances in areas stars across the entire H-R diagram. He reviewed radio such as resolved imaging of radio photospheres, molec- emission mechanisms important for stellar sources and ular line imaging, dynamic imaging spectroscopy, high- emphasized that magnetic fields have now been shown to be important in nearly every type of stellar radio source. 1 MIT Haystack Observatory, Off Route 40, Westford, MA 01886 This point was underscored in many subsequent talks. USA; [email protected] G¨udel cited several “keywords” expected to define the 2 Matthews future of stellar radio astronomy, including µJy sensitiv- bremsstrahlung as the dominant jet emission mechanism. ity, time resolution, bandwidth, spectral resolution, and This work also established that dust emissivity is impor- frequency coverage. S. Kwok (The University of Hong tant even at centimeter wavelengths and that uncertain- Kong) reminded us of another during his closing talk: ties in the dust opacity index comprise the dominant un- dynamic range. Thanks to the truly impressive suite certainty in calculations of the luminosity of YSOs from of new and upgraded radio facilities that has come on- radio data (Ainsworth et al. 2012). line during the past few years, the workshop provided no shortage of illustrations of how recent gains in each 5. RADIO EMISSION FROM COOL MAIN SEQUENCE of these key areas are leading to breakthroughs in our STARS understanding of the workings of stars. 5.1. Emission from Ultracool Dwarfs 4. RADIO EMISSION FROM PRE-MAIN SEQUENCE STARS The interiors of stars later than ∼M3 are thought to be 4.1. The Radio-X-ray Connection in Young Stellar fully convective, predicting a breakdown in the αΩ dy- Objects namo mechanism for generating stellar magnetic fields. Furthermore, at the ultracool end of the H-R diagram It has been known for some time that young stellar ob- ( >M7), X-ray and Hα emission are seen to dramati- jects (YSOs) are producers of both X-ray and centimet- ∼ ric radio emission. However, as summarized by S. Wolk cally decline relative to the stellar bolometric luminos- (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), to date ity, indicating sharp drops in chromospheric and coronal X-ray and radio observations of young clusters have re- heating. Consequently, perhaps one of the greatest sur- vealed a paltry number of simultaneous detections, with prises in stellar radio astronomy in the past decade has only a few percent of YSOs found to show both types of been the discovery of radio emission from ultracool (late emission (Forbrich et al. 2011; Forbrich & Wolk 2013). M, L, and T) dwarfs well in excess of what is predicted This comes as a surprise, since many of the YSOs are from the G¨udel-Benz relation, together with indications predicted to be bright enough for detection in the radio of very strong magnetic fields in some cases. based on the G¨udel-Benz relation2, yet fall short by two As described in the review by G. Hallinan (Califor- orders of magnitude or more. At the same time, several nia Institute of Technology), the emission from ultra- of the YSOs that are detected in the radio lie above the cool dwarfs has been found to comprise both broadband, G¨udel-Benz relation. Further, the radio detections are quiescent emission and periodic pulse-like flares. These not correlated with any identifiable X-ray properties of flares are nearly 100% circularly polarized and are rota- the sources. Together these results suggest that in YSOs tionally modulated, analogous to beamed radiation from the X-ray and radio emission are decoupled. pulsars. This points to an electron cyclotron maser as As described by Wolk, the Jansky Very Large Array the most likely emission mechanism—the same mecha- (JVLA) is soon expected to dramatically extend progress nism responsible for the radio emission from the planets in YSO studies, providing a jump by a factor of ∼20 in our solar system (e.g., Hallinan et al. 2007, 2008; Fig- in sensitivity over past VLA studies. This will greatly ure 1). Importantly, this means that the observed fre- improve radio detection statistics and allow polarization quency cutoff of the emission can be directly translated measurements for many more sources. In addition, the into a measure of the magnetic field strength, with values JVLA will provide the spectral coverage critical for ob- in the kilogauss range reported for the late M dwarfs and taining radio spectral indices and thus distinguishing be- brown dwarfs studied to date. tween thermal and non-thermal emission mechanisms. Rotation increases rapidly from the late M through Wolk described an ongoing campaign to simultaneously the T dwarfs, and the correlation between radio lumi- observe regions of Orion with Chandra and the JVLA, nosity and rotation rate was noted by several speakers. ∼ with first results expected in late 2012. M. G¨udel drew attention to a recent survey of 100 late- M and L dwarfs by McLean et al. (2012) that found that 4.2. Radio Emission from the Jets of Young Stellar for spectral types ∼>M7, the ratio of radio to bolomet- Objects ric luminosity increases with rotational velocity without In addition to their disks, winds, and coronae, the jets saturating.