The Revolution Revolution: magnetic morphology driven spin-down

Abstract

Observations of young open clusters show a bimodal distribution of rotation periods that has been difficult to explain with existing stellar spin-down models. Detailed MHD stellar wind simulations have demonstrated that surface magnetic field morphology has a strong influence on wind-driven angular momentum loss. Observations suggest that faster rotating stars store a larger fraction of their magnetic flux in higher-order multipolar components of the magnetic field. In this work, we present a new model for stellar spin-down that, for the first time, accounts for the stellar surface magnetic field configuration. We show how a magnetic complexity that evolves from complex toward simple configurations as a star spins down can explain the salient features of stellar rotation evolution, including the bimodal distribution of both slow and fast rotators seen in young open clusters.

8 pages, 4 figures, to appear in ApJ