2017/11/20 by O. Kochukhov, Kochukhov, O.
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #FOS: Physical sciences #Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR) #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1711.07206
openalex publication_date 2017/11/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
This review summarises results of recent magnetic and chemical abundance surface mapping studies of early-type stars. We discuss main trends uncovered by observational investigations and consider reliability of spectropolarimetric inversion techniques used to infer these results. A critical assessment of theoretical attempts to interpret empirical magnetic and chemical maps in the framework of, respectively, the fossil field and atomic diffusion theories is also presented. This confrontation of theory and observations demonstrates that 3D MHD models of fossil field relaxation are successful in matching the observed range of surface magnetic field geometries. At the same time, even the most recent time-dependent atomic diffusion calculations fail to reproduce diverse horizontal abundance distributions found in real magnetic hot stars.