Alfven waves in stellar winds
Abstract
An analytic description of a stellar wind with waves which are undamped in the region of subsonic flow is developed for a range of stellar conditions, and numerical models with wave damping are applied to the massive winds from cool, low gravity stars, in an examination of the propagation and damping of Alfven waves in stellar winds. Attention is also given to the effects of these waves on the wind mass loss rate, asymptotic flow speed, and radial temperature profile. No evidence is found for the belief that winds driven by Alfven waves from cool, low gravity stars can exhibit both a very large mass loss rate and a very small asymptotic flow speed. It is noted that the radial temperature profile produced by invoking a constant damping length for the waves is different from that produced by self-consistent description of frictional wave damping for a wave frequency which is presumably consistent with the chosen constant damping length.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- December 1983
- DOI:
- 10.1086/161576
- Bibcode:
- 1983ApJ...275..808H
- Keywords:
-
- Magnetohydrodynamic Waves;
- Stellar Atmospheres;
- Stellar Mass Ejection;
- Stellar Winds;
- Astronomical Models;
- Damping;
- Helium Hydrogen Atmospheres;
- Supergiant Stars;
- Wave Interaction;
- Wave Propagation;
- Astrophysics