Matteo Cantiello edited abstract.tex  almost 9 years ago

Commit id: 2959b1ecab1b173804cd68b1cea9d8a5ff22e393

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Magnetic fields play a role in almost all stages of stellar evolution. Most low-mass stars, including the Sun, show surface fields that are generated by dynamo processes in their convective envelopes. Intermediate-mass stars do not have deep convective envelopes, yet 10\% exhibit strong fields that are presumed to be residuals from the stellar formation process. These stars do have convective cores that might produce magnetic fields, and these might even survive into later stages of stellar evolution, but information is limited by our inability to measure the fields below the stellar surface. Here we use asteroseismology to study the occurrence of magnetic fields in the cores of low- and intermediate-mass stars. We have measured the strength of dipolar oscillation modes, which are sup- pressed suppressed  by a strong magnetic field in the core, in over 3500 red giant stars. About 20\% of our sample have mode suppression but this fraction is a strong function of mass. For intermediate-mass stars (1.6–2.0 $M_\odot$), (1.6--2.0\,$M_\odot$),  strong core fields occur in at least 60\%, suggesting that powerful dynamos are very common in the convective cores of these stars