X-rays of Stellar Coronae with Chandra and XMM-Newton: Flares and Elemental Composition in Stellar Atmospheres (Invited review)

Abstract

Observations of magnetically active stars with Chandra and XMM-Newton have deepened our knowledge of the physics of the atmospheres in late-type stars. In this review paper, I discuss two topics that have profited significantly from Chandra and XMM-Newton. Of particular interest, studies of the elemental composition of stellar coronae have taken advantage of the high spectral resolution available with the grating instruments on board these satellites. I summarize the status of our knowledge and discuss the elemental composition in a variety of stellar coronae. I also focus on the topic of flares in stellar coronae, and review the contributions made by XMM-Newton and Chandra to X-ray and multi-wavelength studies.

Invited review to appear in "Proc. 13th Cambridge Workshop on Cool Stars, Stellar Systems, and the Sun", Hamburg (Germany), 5-9 July 2004, F.Favata et al., eds. (ESA-SP, in press). This is a low-resolution paper; a high-resolution PDF is available at http://www.astro.columbia.edu/~audard/publ/cs13/review.pdf