A&A 624, A32 (2019) Astronomy https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201834706 & c ESO 2019 Astrophysics Variation of the magnetic field of the Ap star HD 50169 over its 29-year rotation period? G. Mathys1, I. I. Romanyuk2,3, S. Hubrig4, D. O. Kudryavtsev2, J. D. Landstreet5,6, M. Schöller7, E. A. Semenko2, and I. A. Yakunin2 1 European Southern Observatory, Alonso de Cordova 3107, Vitacura, Santiago, Chile e-mail:
[email protected] 2 Special Astrophysical Observatory, Russian Academy of Sciences, Nizhnii Arkhyz 369167, Russia 3 Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 48 Pyatnitskaya St, 119017 Moscow, Russia 4 Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP), An der Sternwarte 16, 14482 Potsdam, Germany 5 Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Western Ontario, 1151 Richmond Street, London, Ontario N6A 3K7, Canada 6 Armagh Observatory, College Hill, Armagh BT61 9DG, UK 7 European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, 85748 Garching bei München, Germany Received 22 November 2018 / Accepted 14 February 2019 ABSTRACT Context. The Ap stars that rotate extremely slowly, with periods of decades to centuries, represent one of the keys to the understanding of the processes leading to the differentiation of stellar rotation. Aims. We characterise the variations of the magnetic field of the Ap star HD 50169 and derive constraints about its structure. Methods. We combined published measurements of the mean longitudinal field hBzi of HD 50169 with new determinations of this field moment from circular spectropolarimetry obtained at the 6m telescope BTA of the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences. For the mean magnetic field modulus hBi, literature data were complemented by the analysis of ESO spectra, both newly acquired and from the archive.