Resistive MHD Simulations of Stellar Wind-Magnetosphere Coupling in TRAPPIST-1e
Abstract
Close-in terrestrial exoplanets around M dwarfs reside in dense, magnetized winds, where non-ideal plasma coupling can strongly affect how electromagnetic energy is redistributed within the dayside interaction region. We present three-dimensional resistive magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the TRAPPIST-1 wind interacting with a dipolar TRAPPIST-1e magnetosphere for three stellar-wind forcing cases and four prescribed magnetic diffusivities, cm s. Energy transport is diagnosed using maps of the total energy density, the magnitude of the total Poynting flux, and the divergence of the total Poynting flux. We further estimate a radio-power proxy from the volume integral of over the dayside bow-shock and magnetopause layers. Across all cases, increasing prescribed broadens the coupling layer and shifts the dominant energy-conversion regions from thin, patchy boundary arcs to thicker, more spatially extended structures, with an increasing relative contribution from the magnetopause. The inferred radio-power proxy increases by several orders of magnitude across the explored scan. However, because the estimated numerical magnetic diffusivity in the strongest-gradient regions is - cm s, the present scan is best interpreted as a controlled sensitivity study rather than as a direct constraint on the physical diffusivity of the TRAPPIST-1e environment. For the adopted planetary fields (- G), the maximum cyclotron frequencies are - MHz, below the ground-based window, implying that meaningful radio constraints on TRAPPIST-1e magnetism will require space-based observations below 10 MHz or substantially stronger planetary fields than those assumed here.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2604.00191,
title = {Resistive MHD Simulations of Stellar Wind-Magnetosphere Coupling in TRAPPIST-1e},
author = {J. J. González-Avilés and N. Baltazar Pérez-Negrón and A. Segura},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.00191},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
10 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society