Since the discovery of the transiting super-Earth CoRoT-7b, several investigations have yielded different results for the number and masses of planets present in the system, mainly owing to the star's high level of activity. We re-observed CoRoT-7 in January 2012 with both HARPS and CoRoT, so that we now have the benefit of simultaneous radial-velocity and photometric data. This allows us to use the offtransit variations in the star's light curve to estimate the radial-velocity variations induced by the suppression of convective blueshift and the flux blocked by starspots. To account for activity-related effects in the radial-velocities which do not have a photometric signature, we also include an additional activity term in the radial-velocity model, which we treat as a Gaussian process with the same covariance properties (and hence the same frequency structure) as the light curve. Our model was incorporated into a Monte Carlo Markov Chain in order to make a precise determination of the orbits of CoRoT-7b and CoRoT-7c. We measure the masses of planets b and c to be 4.73 ± 0.95 M ⊕ and 13.56 ± 1.08 M ⊕ , respectively. The density of CoRoT-7b is (6.61 ± 1.72)(R p /1.58 R ⊕ ) −3 g.cm −3 , which is compatible with a rocky composition. We search for evidence of an additional planet d, identified by previous authors with a period close to 9 days. We are not able to confirm the existence of a planet with this orbital period, which is close to the second harmonic of the stellar rotation at ∼ 7.9 days. Using Bayesian model selection we find that a model with two planets plus activity-induced variations is most favoured.

We present in this paper, the first results of a spectropolarimetric analysis of a small sample (∼20) of active stars ranging from spectral type M0 to M8, which are either fully convective or possess a very small radiative core. This study aims at providing new constraints on dynamo processes in fully convective stars. This paper focuses on five stars of spectral type ∼M4, i.e. with masses close to the full convection threshold (≃0.35 M⊙), and with short rotational periods. Tomographic imaging techniques allow us to reconstruct the surface magnetic topologies from the rotationally modulated time‐series of circularly polarized profiles. We find that all stars host mainly axisymmetric large‐scale poloidal fields. Three stars were observed at two different epochs separated by ∼1 yr; we find the magnetic topologies to be globally stable on this time‐scale. We also provide an accurate estimation of the rotational period of all stars, thus allowing us to start studying how rotation impacts the large‐scale magnetic field.

We investigate how the observed large-scale surface magnetic fields of low-mass stars (∼0.1 -2 M ), reconstructed through Zeeman-Doppler imaging (ZDI), vary with age t, rotation and X-ray emission. Our sample consists of 104 magnetic maps of 73 stars, from accreting pre-main sequence to main-sequence objects (1 Myr t 10 Gyr). For non-accreting dwarfs we empirically find that the unsigned average large-scale surface field |B V | is related to age as t −0.655±0.045 . This relation has a similar dependence to that identified by Skumanich (1972), used as the basis for gyrochronology. Likewise, our relation could be used as an age-dating method ("magnetochronology"). The trends with rotation we find for the large-scale stellar magnetism are consistent with the trends found from Zeeman broadening measurements (sensitive to large-and small-scale fields). These similarities indicate that the fields recovered from both techniques are coupled to each other, suggesting that small-and large-scale fields could share the same dynamo field generation processes. For the accreting objects, fewer statistically significant relations are found, with one being a correlation between the unsigned magnetic flux Φ V and P rot . We attribute this to a signature of star-disc interaction, rather than being driven by the dynamo.

We present here additional results of a spectropolarimetric survey of a small sample of stars ranging from spectral type M0 to M8 aimed at investigating observationally how dynamo processes operate in stars on both sides of the full convection threshold (spectral type M4). The present paper focuses on early M stars (M0–M3), that is above the full convection threshold. Applying tomographic imaging techniques to time series of rotationally modulated circularly polarized profiles collected with the NARVAL spectropolarimeter, we determine the rotation period and reconstruct the large‐scale magnetic topologies of six early M dwarfs. We find that early‐M stars preferentially host large‐scale fields with dominantly toroidal and non‐axisymmetric poloidal configurations, along with significant differential rotation (and long‐term variability); only the lowest‐mass star of our subsample is found to host an almost fully poloidal, mainly axisymmetric large‐scale field resembling those found in mid‐M dwarfs. This abrupt change in the large‐scale magnetic topologies of M dwarfs (occurring at spectral type M3) has no related signature on X‐ray luminosities (measuring the total amount of magnetic flux); it thus suggests that underlying dynamo processes become more efficient at producing large‐scale fields (despite producing the same flux) at spectral types later than M3. We suspect that this change relates to the rapid decrease in the radiative cores of low‐mass stars and to the simultaneous sharp increase of the convective turnover times (with decreasing stellar mass) that models predict to occur at M3; it may also be (at least partly) responsible for the reduced magnetic braking reported for fully convective stars.

International audienceFrom a set of stellar spectropolarimetric observations, we report the detection of surface magnetic fields in a sample of four solar-type stars, namely HD 73350, HD 76151, HD 146233 (18 Sco) and HD 190771. Assuming that the observed variability of polarimetric signal is controlled by stellar rotation, we establish the rotation periods of our targets, with values ranging from 8.8 d (for HD 190771) to 22.7 d (for HD 146233). Apart from rotation, fundamental parameters of the selected objects are very close to the Sun's, making this sample a practical basis to investigate the specific impact of rotation on magnetic properties of Sun-like stars. We reconstruct the large-scale magnetic geometry of the targets as a low-order (l < 10) spherical harmonic expansion of the surface magnetic field. From the set of magnetic maps, we draw two main conclusions. (i) The magnetic energy of the large-scale field increases with rotation rate. The increase in chromospheric emission with the mean magnetic field is flatter than observed in the Sun. Since the chromospheric flux is also sensitive to magnetic elements smaller than those contributing to the polarimetric signal, this observation suggests that a larger fraction of the surface magnetic energy is stored in large scales as rotation increases. (ii) Whereas the magnetic field is mostly poloidal for low rotation rates, more rapid rotators host a large-scale toroidal component in their surface field. From our observations, we infer that a rotation period lower than ~12 d is necessary for the toroidal magnetic energy to dominate over the poloidal component

In this paper, we present new spectropolarimetric observations of the planet-hosting star τ Bootis, using ESPaDOnS and Narval spectropolarimeters at Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope and Telescope Bernard Lyot, respectively.We detected the magnetic field of the star at three epochs in 2008. It has a weak magnetic field of only a few gauss, oscillating between a predominant toroidal component in January and a dominant poloidal component in June and July. A magnetic polarity reversal was observed relative to the magnetic topology in 2007 June. This is the second such reversal observed in 2 years on this star, suggesting that τ Boo has a magnetic cycle of about 2 years. This is the first detection of a magnetic cycle for a star other than the Sun. The role of the close-in massive planet in the short activity cycle of the star is questioned.τ Boo has a strong differential rotation, a common trend for stars with shallow convective envelope. At latitude 40 • , the surface layer of the star rotates in 3.31 d, equal to the orbital period. Synchronization suggests that the tidal effects induced by the planet may be strong enough to force at least the thin convective envelope into corotation.τ Boo shows variability in the Ca II H & K and Hα throughout the night and on a nightto-night time-scale. We do not detect enhancement in the activity of the star that may be related to the conjunction of the planet. Further data are needed to conclude about the activity enhancement due to the planet.

International audienceWe have obtained new spectropolarimetric observations of the planet-hosting star τ Bootis, using the ESPaDOnS and NARVAL spectropolarimeters at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) and Télescope Bernard Lyot (TBL). With this data set, we are able to confirm the presence of a magnetic field at the surface of τ Boo and map its large-scale structure over the whole star. The large-scale magnetic field is found to be fairly complex, with a strength of up to 10 G; it features a dominant poloidal field and a small toroidal component, the poloidal component being significantly more complex than a dipole. The overall polarity of the magnetic field has reversed with respect to our previous observation (obtained a year before), strongly suggesting that τ Boo is undergoing magnetic cycles similar to those of the Sun. This is the first time that a global magnetic polarity switch is observed in a star other than the Sun; given the infrequent occurrence of such events in the Sun, we speculate that the magnetic cycle period of τ Boo is much shorter than that of the Sun. Our new data also allow us to confirm the presence of differential rotation, both from the shape of the line profiles and the latitudinal shearing that the magnetic structure is undergoing. The differential rotation surface shear that τ Boo experiences is found to be 6 to 10 times larger than that of the Sun, in good agreement with recent claims that differential rotation is strongest in stars with shallow convective zones. We propose that the short-magnetic cycle period is due to the strong level of differential rotation. With a rotation period of 3.0 and 3.9 d at the equator and pole, respectively, τ Boo appears as the first planet-hosting star whose rotation (at intermediate latitudes) is synchronized with the orbital motion of its giant planet (period 3.3 d). Assuming that this synchronization is not coincidental, it suggests that the tidal effects induced by the giant planet can be strong enough to force the thin convective envelope (though not the whole star) into corotation. We also detect time-dependent activity fluctuations on τ Boo, but cannot unambiguously determine whether they are intrinsic to the star or induced by the planet; more observations of similar type are needed to determine the role of the close-in giant planet orbiting τ Boo on both the activity enhancements and the magnetic cycle of the host star

The Sun is the only star whose surface can be directly resolved at high resolution, and therefore constitutes an excellent test case to explore the physical origin of stellar radial-velocity (RV) variability. We present HARPS observations of sunlight scattered off the bright asteroid 4/Vesta, from which we deduced the Sun's activity-driven RV variations. In parallel, the HMI instrument onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory provided us with simultaneous high spatial resolution magnetograms, Dopplergrams, and continuum images of the Sun in the Fe I 6173Å line. We determine the RV modulation arising from the suppression of granular blueshift in magnetised regions and the flux imbalance induced by dark spots and bright faculae. The rms velocity amplitudes of these contributions are 2.40 m s −1 and 0.41 m s −1 , respectively, which confirms that the inhibition of convection is the dominant source of activity-induced RV variations at play, in accordance with previous studies. We find the Doppler imbalances of spot and plage regions to be only weakly anticorrelated. Lightcurves can thus only give incomplete predictions of convective blueshift suppression. We must instead seek proxies that track the plage coverage on the visible stellar hemisphere directly. The chromospheric flux index R HK derived from the HARPS spectra performs poorly in this respect, possibly because of the differences in limb brightening/darkening in the chromosphere and photosphere. We also find that the activity-driven RV variations of the Sun are strongly correlated with its full-disc magnetic flux density, which may become a useful proxy for activity-related RV noise.Based on observations made with the HARPS instrument on the 3.6 m telescope under the program ID 088.C-0323 at Cerro La Silla (Chile), and the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory. The HARPS observations, together with tables for the results presented in this paper are available in electronic format at: http://dx.doi.org/10.17630/bb43e6a3-72e0-464c-9fdd-fbe5d3e56a09. The SDO/HMI images can be downloaded from: