English

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

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics 2017-01-11 v1

Abstract

We searched for superflares on solar-type stars using the Kepler short-cadence (1-min sampling) data 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. 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 α=1.5\alpha=1.5 for 1033<E<103610^{33}<E<10^{36} erg. 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 amplitude of brightness variations. 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.1601.01132,
  title  = {Statistical properties of superflares on solar-type stars based on the Kepler 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:1601.01132},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

6 pages, 4 figures, submitted to the proceedings of the IAU Symposium 320 "Solar and Stellar Flares and Their Effects on Planets" (eds. A. G. Kosovichev, S. L. Hawley, P. Heinzel)