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Paper: Inference of Stellar Coronal Structure
Volume: 154, Cool Stars, Stellar Systems and the Sun: Tenth Cambridge Workshop
Page: 463
Authors: Schmitt, J. H. M. M.
Abstract: Unlike the solar corona, stellar coronae cannot be --- directly --- spatially resolved at X-ray wavelengths. Yet stellar coronae are likely to exhibit similar amounts of structure as the solar corona. Currently structural information from such spatially unresolved data can be inferred from rotational modulation of the X-ray emission for single stars and/or eclipses in the case of binary systems as well as from coronal density measurements, which can be obtained from suitably chosen density sensitive line ratios. The most powerful information on structure is contained in Doppler data, however, the spectral resolution of currently X-ray available instrumentation does not permit such measurements. I will discuss some of the observations obtained, and review the methods used to infer structure from these data. Particular emphasis will be placed on the ill-conditioned nature of the inversion problem, that makes it rather difficult to infer the possibly three-dimensional structure of stellar coronae. Finally I will address the prospects of obtaining structural information on other stars with the next generation of X-ray telescopes.
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