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Old 22-12-2010, 03:07 PM
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CraigS
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"O" Class Stars & Synchrotron Radiation

Here's a Christmas present for Alex (Jarva) …

Magnetic fields on O-Class stars

Quote:
The primary method by which astronomers can measure magnetic field strength on stars is the Zeeman effect. This effect is the splitting of spectral lines into two due to the magnetic field's effect on the quantum structure of the orbitals. For massive O-class stars, their spectra are largely featureless in the visual portion of the spectra due to an insufficient number of atoms with electrons in the necessary orbitals to undergo transitions which can produce visual spectral lines. Thus, determining whether or not these stars have magnetic fields has been a unique challenge.

A new paper from researchers at the University of Amsterdam, led by Roald Schnerr, looks for evidence of these fields in the form of synchrotron radiation.
They go on to say they've only just been able to detect non-thermal spectra (concluded its synchrotron radiation) from one of five sampled 'O' Class stars. The question remains as to where the relativistic electrons come from (needed to emit synchrotron radiation & its spectrum).

… And why didn't they detect it from the other four in the sample.

Actually, its way too small a sample size to make much at all from this research, but this is partially due to the comparative rarity of "O" class stars and detection of synchrotron spectra for such distant stars.

Very interesting article, none-the-less.

Cheers
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