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Abstract:
Hot magnetic stars are the perfect laboratories for understanding
stellar magnetospheric phenomena due to the fact that their fields are
extremely stable throughout their lifetimes, and also have very simple
topologies (dipolar in most cases). Their strong stellar winds
interact with the magnetic fields giving rise to co-rotating
magnetospheres extending up to several tens of stellar radii. The
magnetosphere manifests itself via emission over a wide range of the
electromagnetic spectrum, starting from radio to X-ray. These
emissions convey different kinds of information, and together, they
act as probes for wind-magnetic field interplay. Among the different
emissions that these magnetospheres produce, the latest discovered,
and consequently, the least understood one is the coherent radio
emission, also referred to as auroral radio emission. This is produced
by electron cyclotron maser emission (ECME, the same mechanism that
drives auroral radio emission from magnetic ultracool dwarfs and
planets). In my talk, I will take you on our journey towards
demystifying this phenomenon, starting with some serendipitous
discoveries, followed by a systematic sub-GHz survey, which ironically
led to the discoveries of many more unexplained characteristics,
including discovery of radio flares, in addition to providing
solutions to existing problems. I will present the results that we
have obtained so far regarding ECME incidence, wideband properties and
stability, and potential scenarios to explain the observations. I will
end with my future plan to obtain more definitive insights about
magnetospheric operation and the role that ATNF instruments can play
in achieving that goal.
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