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| Paper: |
The Winds of Solar-like Stars and Their Interactions with the ISM |
| Volume: |
154, Cool Stars, Stellar Systems and the Sun: Tenth Cambridge Workshop |
| Page: |
1652 |
| Authors: |
Wood, Brian E.; Linsky, Jeffrey L. |
| Abstract: |
Models of the solar wind's interaction with the local interstellar medium predict the existence of hot, decelerated neutral hydrogen gas just outside the heliopause. Lyman-alpha absorption from this ``hydrogen wall'' has been detected in HST GHRS spectra. The recent detection of Lyman-alpha absorption from stellar hydrogen walls allows us for the first time to study the solar-like winds of other stars. In this article, we summarize the hydrogen walls detected to date (some only tentatively). We then try to determine if the measured properties of the walls are consistent with theoretical expectations, and we assess the usefulness of the hydrogen wall properties for inferring properties of the stellar winds. Stellar wind pressures estimated from the hydrogen wall column densities appear to be correlated with stellar X-ray surface fluxes, F_X, in a manner consistent with the relation P_wind propto F_X^{-1/2}, a relation that is also consistent with the variations of P_wind and F_X observed during the solar activity cycle. If this relation does in fact apply to solar-like stars in general, stellar wind pressures and mass loss rates are then predicted to increase with time, since F_X is known to decrease with stellar age. |
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