Differential rotation of giant stars

✍ Scribed by M. Weber

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 120 KB
• Volume: 328
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0004-6337
• DOI: 10.1002/asna.200710869

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

From a set of high‐resolution spectral observations of late type giant stars we used Doppler imaging to derive time‐series temperature maps of the stellar surfaces. Using these temperature maps, it is possible to track the temporal changes of the spot features and derive estimates of the strength and sign of the differential surface rotation of these stars. Looking into the latitudinal changes of the surface maps, it is also possible to derive meridional flows on these stars. But due to the lower accuracy of the latitudes of the reconstructed spot features, the data requirements are higher than for the detection of differential rotation. Nevertheless, a correlation between the differential rotation and meridional flow estimates is suggested. (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)