Radio Activity from the Rapidly Rotating T dwarf 2MASS 2228-4310
Abstract
We present the detection of 2MASS J22282889-4310262 (2M2228), a T6/T6.5 brown dwarf, using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) archival data observed at C band (4-8 GHz) over two observing epochs ( minutes). 2M2228 is detected at time and frequency averaged Stokes I and V peak flux densities of and in the first epoch and and in the second epoch. This discovery constitutes the eighth and, notably, the most rapidly rotating T dwarf detected to date at radio wavelengths. Our observations reveal highly polarised bursts at fractional polarisation ratios %. Using Stokes I light curves, we measure occurrence intervals of and minutes in the two observing epochs respectively with the first burst aligning within a half period timescale of the the previously measured mid infrared photometric period of minutes. We attribute the emission to the electron cyclotron maser emission (ECME) and constrain the magnetic field strength to kG. We emphasise that the periods inferred are provisional considering the short observing durations. The combination of previously demonstrated atmospheric stability and newly detected radio emission in 2M2228 makes it a promising laboratory for testing magnetospheric currents-driven auroral models and for guiding future coordinated James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and radio observations to probe the link between auroral activity and atmospheric dynamics in T-type brown dwarfs.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2601.04158,
title = {Radio Activity from the Rapidly Rotating T dwarf 2MASS 2228-4310},
author = {Kelvin Wandia and Michael A. Garrett and Aaron Golden and Gregg Hallinan and David Williams-Baldwin and Geferson Lucatelli and Robert J. Beswick and Jack F. Radcliffe and Andrew Siemion and Talon Myburgh},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.04158},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
7 pages, 2 figures