A significant fraction of massive main-sequence stars show strong, large-scale magnetic fields. The origin of these fields, their lifetimes, and their role in shaping the characteristics and evolution of massive stars are currently not well understood. We compile a catalogue of 389 massive main-sequence stars, 61 of which are magnetic, and derive their fundamental parameters and ages. The two samples contain stars brighter than magnitude 9 in the V band and range in mass between 5 and 100 Msun. We find that the fractional main-sequence age distribution of all considered stars follows what is expected for a magnitude limited sample, while that of magnetic stars shows a clear decrease towards the end of the main sequence. This dearth of old magnetic stars is independent of the choice of adopted stellar evolution tracks, and appears to become more prominent when considering only the most massive stars. We show that the decreasing trend in the distribution is significantly stronger than expected from magnetic flux conservation. We also find that binary rejuvenation and magnetic suppression of core convection are unlikely to be responsible for the observed lack of older magnetic massive stars, and conclude that its most probable cause is the decay of the magnetic field, over a time span longer than the stellar lifetime for the lowest considered masses, and shorter for the highest masses. We then investigate the spin-down ages of the slowly rotating magnetic massive stars and find them to exceed the stellar ages by far in many cases. The high fraction of very slowly rotating magnetic stars thus provides an independent argument for a decay of the magnetic fields.
Evolution of Massive Main-sequence Stars in Rapid Population Synthesis. I. Framework and Implementation
Monash University(莫纳什大学);OzGrav: The ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery(引力波发现ARC卓越中心);Astrophysical Big Bang Laboratory (ABBL), Pioneering Research Institute (PRI), RIKEN(理化学研究所先导研究院天体物理大爆炸实验室)
Impact of initial models and variable accretion rates on the pre-main-sequence evolution of massive and intermediate-mass stars and the early evolution of HII regions
Reassessing the low-$α$ massive sequence stars in Gaia RVS
Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences(阿里亚巴塔观测科学研究所);Division of Astrophysics, Department of Physics, Lund University(隆德大学物理系天体物理学分部);Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias(加那利群岛天体物理研究所);Universidad de La Laguna(拉古纳大学);INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste(意大利国家天文台的里雅斯特天文台);IFPU, Institute for Fundamental Physics of the Universe(宇宙基础物理研究所);Dipartimento di Fisica, Sezione di Astronomia, Università di Trieste(的里雅斯特大学物理系天文学部);INFN Sezione di Trieste(意大利国家核物理研究所的里雅斯特分部);Université Côte d’Azur, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, CNRS, Laboratoire Lagrange(蔚蓝海岸大学、蔚蓝海岸天文台、法国国家科学研究中心、拉格朗日实验室)