Poster Abstracts

Name/Affiliation:  Cecilia Garraffo (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)

Title:  Magnetic Modulation of Stellar Angular Momentum Loss

Abstract:
Angular Momentum Loss (AML) is important for understanding astrophysical phenomena such as stellar rotation and magnetic activity, close binaries, and cataclysmic variables. Magnetic breaking is the dominant mechanism in the spin down of young late-type stars. We study AML as a function of stellar magnetic activity. We argue that the complexity of the field and its latitudinal distribution are crucial for the AML rates. AML is modulated by magnetic cycles and stellar spin down is not just a simple function of large scale magnetic field strength.