The Magnetic Fields of Ap Stars From High Resolution Stokes IQUV Spectropolarimetry

• Main Author: Silvester, James
• Other Authors: Queen's University (Kingston, Ont.). Theses (Queen's University (Kingston, Ont.))
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: Stars; Astronomy; Canada; narval
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1974/12205

In this thesis we describe the acquisition of high resolution time resolved spectropolarimetric observations of 7 (bright and well understood) Ap stars in Stokes IQUV using the ESPaDOnS and Narval spectropolarimeters at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope and the 2m Telescope Bernard Lyot at Pic du Midi Observatory. We compare these observations with those obtained a decade earlier using the MuSiCoS spectropolarimeter to confirm consistency with the older data and provide evidence that both ESPaDOnS and Narval perform as expected in all Stokes parameters. We demonstrate that our refined longitudinal magnetic field and linear polarisation measurements for these 7 stars are of much greater quality than was previously obtained with MuSiCoS and that the global magnetic properties of these stars are stable over a long timescale. The ultimate aim of these new data is to provide a basis from which mapping of both the magnetic field and abundance structures can be performed on our target stars. We then describe magnetic field mapping of the Ap star Alpha 2 CVn using these data. This mapping is achieved with the use of tomographic inversion of Doppler-broadened Stokes IQUV profiles of a large variety of spectral lines using the INVERS10 Magnetic Doppler imaging code. We show that not only are the new magnetic field maps of Alpha 2 CVn consistent with a previous generation of maps of Alpha 2 CVn, but that the same magnetic field topology can be derived from a variety of atomic line sets. This indicates that the magnetic field we derive for Alpha 2 CVn is a realistic representation of the star's true magnetic topology. Finally we investigate surface abundance structures for Alpha 2 CVn for various chemical elements. We investigate the correlation between the location of these abundance features and the magnetic field of Alpha 2 CVn. We will demonstrate that whilst the magnetic field plays a role in the formation of abundance structures, the current theoretical framework does not fully explain what we find from our maps. Ultimately this work motivates future mapping of Ap stars by confirming the reliability of both the instrument and associated data and the mapping technique itself. Thesis (Ph.D, Physics, Engineering Physics and Astronomy) -- Queen's University, 2014-05-27 14:14:25.813