Rossby numbers of fully convective and partially convective stars

Abstract

In this work, we investigate the stellar magnetic activity in the theoretical point of view, through the use of stellar structure and evolution models. We present theoretical values of convective turnover times and Rossby numbers for low-mass stars, calculated with the ATON stellar structure and evolution code. We concentrate our analysis on fully convective and partially convective stars motivated by recent observations of X-ray emission of slowly rotating fully convective stars, which suggest that the presence of a tachocline is not a central key for magnetic fields generation. We investigate the behavior of the convective turnover time evolution, as well as its radial profile inside the star. A discussion about the location where the convective turnover time is calculated in the stellar interior is also addressed. Our theoretical results are compared to observational data from low-mass stars.