Stan Owocki, Univ. of Delaware
Magnetospheres of Magnetic Massive Stars
Massive, luminous, hot stars lack the hydrogen recombination convection zone that induces the magnetic dynamo cycle of cooler, solar-type stars. Nonetheless, modern spectropolarimetry has revealed that about 10% of O, B and A-type stars harbor large-scale, organized (often predominantly dipolar) magnetic fields ranging in dipolar strength from a few hundred to tens of thousand Gauss. This talk will discuss the role of such fields in channeling and trapping the radiatively driven winds of massive stars. A particular focus will be on the interplay of rotation and magnetic fields, for example in the centrifugal support of material in closed loops, and in the rotational spindown from angular momentum loss from open field regions.