English

Statistical properties of superflares on solar-type stars based on 1-min cadence data

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics 2015-05-11 v1 Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Abstract

We searched for superflares on solar-type stars using Kepler data with 1 min sampling in order to detect superflares with short duration. We found 187 superflares on 23 solar-type stars whose bolometric energy ranges from the order of 103210^{32} erg to 103610^{36} erg. Some superflares show multiple peaks with the peak separation of the order of 100100-10001000 seconds which is comparable to the periods of quasi-periodic pulsations in solar and stellar flares. Using these new data combined with the results from the data with 30 min sampling, we found the occurrence frequency (dN/dEdN/dE) of superflares as a function of flare energy (EE) shows the power-law distribution (dN/dEEαdN/dE \propto E^{-\alpha}) with α1.5\alpha \sim -1.5 for 1033<E<103610^{33}<E<10^{36} erg which is consistent with the previous results. The average occurrence rate of superflares with the energy of 103310^{33} erg which is equivalent to X100 solar flares is about once in 500-600 years. The upper limit of energy released by superflares is basically comparable to a fraction of the magnetic energy stored near starspots which is estimated from the photometry. We also found that the duration of superflares (τ\tau) increases with the flare energy (EE) as τE0.39±0.03\tau \propto E^{0.39\pm 0.03}. This can be explained if we assume the time-scale of flares is determined by the Alfveˊ\acute{\rm e}n time.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1504.00074,
  title  = {Statistical properties of superflares on solar-type stars based on 1-min cadence data},
  author = {Hiroyuki Maehara and Takuya Shibayama and Yuta Notsu and Shota Notsu and Satoshi Honda and Daisaku Nogami and Kazunari Shibata},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1504.00074},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

Accepted for for publication in Earth, Planets and Space