Katelyn Smith

Characterising the Magnetic Environment of the M dwarf AD Leonis

M dwarfs are the most common stars, ubiquitously hosting planets, but with magnetic dynamos very different from the Sun’s. Their extreme space weather environments may have significant bearing on planetary habitability. Our Sun experiences a 22 year-long cycle of magnetic reversal, like many other low mass stars, but which has not been observed yet for fast-rotating M dwarfs. One such star is AD Leonis. Based on the longitudinal field weakening and becoming less axisymmetric over time, it has been predicted that it will soon experience a reversal. With new spectropolarimetric observations from SPIRou, we utilised Zeeman-Doppler imaging to reconstruct the large-scale magnetic field of AD Leo. We found the longitudinal field strength has increased since previous observations and the topology of the field has returned to an axisymmetric state. Despite expectations, AD Leo has yet to experience the long-awaited polarity reversal.