Rotation and Magnetism in Massive Stars

Adrian T. Potter

Published 2012-05-29Version 1

Rotation has a number of important effects on the evolution of stars. It decreases the surface gravity, causes enhanced mass loss and leads to surface abundance anomalies of various chemical isotopes. We have adapted the Cambridge stellar evolution code to incorporate a number of different physical models for rotation. We compare detailed grids of stellar evolution models along with simulated stellar populations to identify the key differences between them. Models of rotationally-driven dynamos in stellar radiative zones have suggested that magnetohydrodynamic transport of angular momentum and chemical composition can dominate over the otherwise purely hydrodynamic processes. We have adapted our purely hydrodynamic model to include the evolution of the magnetic field. We consider what effects this has on our populations of rotating stars and how these relate to observational data. Strong magnetic fields are also observed at the end of the stellar lifetime. The surface magnetic field strength of white dwarfs is observed to vary from very little up to 10^9G. We look at how the strongest magnetic fields in white dwarfs may be generated by dynamo action during the common envelope phase of strongly interacting binary stars.