Radio emission from RS CVn binaries. II - Polarization and spectral properties

Abstract

Multi-epoch radio observations of circular polarization and spectral characteristics of several close, late-type stellar binaries (mainly of the RS CVn class) are reported. The median luminosity of four well-studied systems ranged from 16.2 ≤ log(L<SUB>R</SUB>) ≤ 17.1 erg s<SUP>-1</SUP>Hz<SUP>-1</SUP>. For individual systems, the fractional circular polarization decreases with increasing luminosity, particularly at frequencies f ≥ 5 GHz. Eclipsing binaries have significantly lower average circular polarization compared with non-eclipsing systems. Helicity reversal is almost always observed between 1.4 and 4.9 GHz for systems with high orbital inclination. These spectral and polarization characteristics, combined with direct measurements of the brightness temperature using previously published VLBI observations, strongly support a model of inhomogeneous gyrosynchrotron emission arising from electrons with power law energy spectra interacting with inhomogeneous magnetic fields. The source emission region is probably cospatial with the large coronal loops deduced from X-ray observations.