Abstract

Invited Talk - Splinter MassiveStars

Thursday, 10 September 2026, 14:15   (MW-1050)

Massive contact binaries as probes of magnetic field formation processes

Michael Abdul-Masih
Universidad de La Laguna, Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias

Despite affecting ~7% of all O-type stars, the origin of magnetism in massive stars is still widely debated. One leading theory suggests that magnetism may originate through stellar mergers, both during the initial mass transfer phase and when the cores merge. Recent studies of individual systems and statistical studies of the population seem to give further credence to this idea. One interesting feature of this theory is that it suggests that we should be able to detect magnetic fields in interacting binaries before they actually merge. Recent observations of a sample of massive interacting contact systems have allowed us to test this theory. In this talk, I will discuss the results of this study and how they affect our understanding of the formation of magnetic massive stars and for massive star evolution in general.