Bibcode
Yu, S.; Hallinan, G.; Doyle, J. G.; MacKinnon, A. L.; Antonova, A.; Kuznetsov, A.; Golden, A.; Zhang, Z. H.
Bibliographical reference
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 525, id.A39, 10 pp.
Advertised on:
1
2011
Journal
Citations
26
Refereed citations
24
Description
Context. Recently, unanticipated magnetic activity in ultracool dwarfs
(UCDs, spectral classes later than M7) has emerged from a number of
radio observations. The highly (up to 100%) circularly polarized nature
and high brightness temperature of the emission have been interpreted as
requiring an effective amplification mechanism of the high-frequency
electromagnetic waves - the electron cyclotron maser instability (ECMI).
Aims: We aim to understand the magnetic topology and the
properties of the radio emitting region and associated plasmas in these
ultracool dwarfs, interpreting the origin of radio pulses and their
radiation mechanism. Methods: An active region model was built,
based on the rotation of the UCD and the ECMI mechanism. Results:
The high degree of variability in the brightness and the diverse profile
of pulses can be interpreted in terms of a large-scale hot active region
with extended magnetic structure existing in the magnetosphere of TVLM
513-46546. We suggest the time profile of the radio light curve is in
the form of power law in the model. Combining the analysis of the data
and our simulation, we can determine the loss-cone electrons have a
density in the range of 1.25 × 105 -5 ×
105 cm-3 and temperature between 107
and 5 × 107 K. The active region has a size <
1RJup, while the pulses produced by the ECMI mechanism are
from a much more compact region (e.g. ~0.007 RJup). A surface
magnetic field strength of ≈7000 G is predicted. Conclusions:
The active region model is applied to the radio emission from TVLM
513-46546, in which the ECMI mechanism is responsible for the radio
bursts from the magnetic tubes and the rotation of the dwarf can
modulate the integral of flux with respect to time. The radio emitting
region consists of complicated substructures. With this model, we can
determine the nature (e.g. size, temperature, density) of the radio
emitting region and plasma. The magnetic topology can also be
constrained. We compare our predicted X-ray flux with Chandra X-ray
observation of TVLM 513-46546. Although the X-ray detection is only
marginally significant, our predicted flux is significantly lower than
the observed flux. Further multi-wavelength observations will help us
better understand the magnetic field structure and plasma behavior on
the ultracool dwarf.