Searching for the Origin of Flares in M dwarfs

Lauren Doyle, Gavin Ramsay, John G. Doyle

(Submitted on 15 Nov 2018)

We present an overview of K2 short cadence observations for 34 M dwarfs observed in Campaigns 1 – 9 which have spectral types between M0 – L1. All of the stars in our sample showed flares with the most energetic reaching 3×1034 ergs. As previous studies have found, we find rapidly rotating stars tend to show more flares, with evidence for a decline in activity in stars with rotation periods longer than approximately 10 days. We determined the rotational phase of each flare and performed a simple statistical test on our sample to determine whether the phase distribution of the flares is random or if there is a preference for phase. We find, with the exception of one star which is in a known binary system, that none show a preference for the rotational phase of the flares. This is unexpected and all stars in our sample show flares at all rotational phases, suggesting these flares are not all originating from one dominant starspot on the surface of the stars. We outline three scenarios which could explain the lack of a correlation between the number of flares and the stellar rotation phase. In addition we also highlight preliminary observations of DP Cnc, observed in campaigns 16 and 18, and is one of the stars in our extended sample from K2 Campaigns 10 -18 which are still to be examined.

Subjects: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)

Cite as: arXiv:1811.06594 [astro-ph.SR] (or arXiv:1811.06594v1 [astro-ph.SR] for this version)

Submission history

From: Lauren Doyle 

[v1] Thu, 15 Nov 2018 21:09:19 UTC (286 KB)

https://arxiv.org/abs/1811.06594

Astrobiology