ITC Pizza Lunch

Aaron Dotter (CfA)
Title: How stellar winds affect stellar evolution

Abstract: I will begin with a brief review of the different mechanisms by which stars lose mass.  I will then describe how stellar winds influence stellar evolution across the H-R diagram.  I will mention the effect of stellar winds as they relate to galactic chemical evolution.

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Cecilia Garraffo (CfA)
Title: The Revolution Revolution: towards a complete stellar spin-down model

Abstract:  Detailed MHD stellar wind models have demonstrated that surface magnetic field topology has a strong influence on wind-driven angular momentum loss. Observations suggest that faster rotating stars store a larger fraction of their magnetic flux in higher order components of the magnetic field.  In this talk I will discuss how a magnetic complexity that evolves from complex toward simple configurations as a star spins down can explain the salient features of stellar rotation evolution, including the bimodal distribution of both slow and fast rotators seen in young open clusters.