Can scallop-shell stars trap dust in their magnetic fields?
@article{Sanderson2022CanSS,
title={Can scallop-shell stars trap dust in their magnetic fields?},
author={H Sanderson and M M Jardine and Andrew Collier Cameron and J. Morin and J. F. Donati},
journal={Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society},
year={2022}
}
One of the puzzles to have emerged from the Kepler and TESS missions is the existence of unexplained dips in the lightcurves of a small fraction of rapidly-rotating M dwarfs in young open clusters and star-forming regions. We present a theoretical investigation of one possible explanation - that these are caused by dust clouds trapped in the stellar magnetic fields. The depth and duration of the observed dips allow us to estimate directly the linear extent of the dust clouds and their…
