3D modelling of stellar auroral radio emission

Abstract

The electron cyclotron maser is the coherent emission process that gives rise to the radio lighthouse effect observed in the hot magnetic chemically peculiar star CU Virginis. It has also been proposed to explain the highly circularly polarized radio pulses observed in some ultracool dwarfs with spectral type earlier than M7. Coherent events of this kind resemble auroral radio emission from the magnetized planets of the Solar system. In this article, we present a three-dimensional model able to simulate the timing and profile of the pulses emitted by those stars characterized by a dipolar magnetic field by following the hypothesis of the laminar source model, used to explain the beaming of terrestrial auroral kilometric radiation. This model proves to be a powerful tool with which to understand the auroral radio emission phenomenon, allowing us to derive some general conclusions about the effects of the model's free parameters on the features of coherent pulses and to learn more about the detectability of such pulsed radio emission.