Matteo Cantiello edited Introduction.tex  about 9 years ago

Commit id: c9c1bfd462981dc48182505f1b86293c6930ceb8

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%A fraction of main-sequence A stars shows strong surface magnetic fields (Ap stars).  %Ap stars have large scale, predominantly dipolar magnetic fields that show little or no time evolution and %amplitudes in the range 0.3-30kG.   Surface magnetic fields are routinely measured in stars. However their internal magnetic properties are inaccessible to direct observations; as a consequence very little is known about the amplitude, geometry and evolution of internal stellar B-fields.  A %A  fraction of main-sequence A stars shows strong surface magnetic fields (Ap stars). Ap %Ap  stars have large scale, predominantly dipolar magnetic fields that show little or no time evolution and amplitudes %amplitudes  in the range 0.3-30kG. Here we demonstrate that a strong magnetic field in the core of RGB stars can suppress the amplitude of dipolar oscillation modes. Suppressed dipolar modes are indeed observed in about 10\% of ascending RGB stars, and we identify these as stars with strongly magnetized cores. The observed fraction and mass distribution of these stars suggests that they could be the descendants of magnetic Ap stars. The novel asteroseismic technique described here allows to constrain for the first time the magnetic field in the deep interiors of a large population of stars.