Probing the origin of stellar flares on M dwarfs using TESS data sectors 1–3

Doyle, Lauren, Ramsay, Gavin, Doyle, John Gerard and Wu, Kinwah (2019) Probing the origin of stellar flares on M dwarfs using TESS data sectors 1–3. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 489 (1). pp. 437-445. ISSN 0035-8711

[img]
Preview
Text
stz2205.pdf - Published Version

Download (1MB) | Preview
Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz2205

Abstract

Detailed studies of the Sun have shown that sunspots and solar flares are closely correlated. Photometric data from Kepler/K2 has allowed similar studies to be carried out on other stars. Here, we utilize Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) photometric 2-min cadence of 167 low-mass stars from Sectors 1 to 3 to investigate the relationship between star-spots and stellar flares. From our sample, 90 per cent show clear rotational modulation likely due to the presence of a large, dominant star-spot and we use this to determine a rotational period for each star. Additionally, each low-mass star shows one or more flares in its light curve and using Gaia Data Release 2 parallaxes and SkyMapper magnitudes we can estimate the energy of the flares in the TESS band-pass. Overall, we have 1834 flares from the 167 low-mass stars with energies from 6.0 × 1029 to 2.4 × 1035 erg. We find none of the stars in our sample show any preference for rotational phase, suggesting the lack of a correlation between the large, dominant star-spot, and flare number. We discuss this finding in greater detail and present further scenarios to account for the origin of flares on these low-mass stars.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ©: 2019 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.
Uncontrolled Keywords: stars: activity, stars: flare, stars: low-mass, stars: magnetic fields
Subjects: F300 Physics
F500 Astronomy
Department: Faculties > Engineering and Environment > Mathematics, Physics and Electrical Engineering
Depositing User: Elena Carlaw
Date Deposited: 24 Oct 2019 15:18
Last Modified: 31 Jul 2021 15:49
URI: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/41234

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics