Wind-driven magnetic braking of a solar-type star

ID: wind-driven-magnetic-braking-of-a-solar-type-star

A magnetized stellar wind extracts angular momentum through matter transport and Maxwell stress tensor. The Alfvén radius supplies an effective lever arm larger than the stellar radius, with geometry factors absorbed into an averaged lever arm. Dynamo action couples the torque to rotation by supplying the magnetic field. For a simplified radial wind of fixed speed, scales as , so unsaturated gives a torque proportional to . Magnetic topology and wind thermodynamics can alter this scaling.

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