Search

We present the results of a search for stellar flares in the first data release from the Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS). We have found 610 flares from 339 stars, with spectral types between F8 and M6, the majority of which belong to the Galactic thin disc. We have used the 13 second cadence NGTS lightcurves to measure flare properties such as the flare amplitude, duration and bolometric energy. We have measured the average flare occurrence rates of K and early to mid M stars and present a generalised method to measure these rates while accounting for changing detection sensitivities. We find that field age K and early M stars show similar flare behaviour, while fully convective M stars exhibit increased white-light flaring activity, which we attribute to their increased spin down time. We have also studied the average flare rates of pre-main sequence K and M stars, showing they exhibit increased flare activity relative to their main sequence counterparts., 21 pages, 13 figures, 5 tables. Accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

This research is based on data collected under the NGTS project at the ESO La Silla Paranal Observatory. The NGTS facility is funded by a consortium of institutes consisting of the University of Warwick, the University of Leicester, Queen’s University Belfast, the University of Geneva, the Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR; under the ‘Grosinvestition GI-NGTS’), the University of Cambridge, together with the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC; project reference ST/M001962/1). JAGJ is supported by STFC PhD studentship 1763096. PJW and RGW are supported by the STFC consolidated grant ST/P000495/1. AMB acknowledges the support of the Institute of Advanced Study, University of Warwick, and is also supported by the STFC consolidated grant ST/P000320/1. MNG is supported by the STFC award reference 1490409 as well as the Isaac Newton Studentship. CEP acknowledges support from the European Research Council under the SeismoSun Research Project No. 321141. JSJ acknowledges support by Fondecyt grant 1161218 and partial support by CATA-Basal (PB06, CONICYT). DYK acknowledges support by the STFC consolidated grant ST/P000320/1. GMK is supported by the Royal Society as a Royal Society University Research Fellow. We also acknowledge and thank the ISSI team led by AMB for useful discussions. This publication makes use of data products from the 2MASS, which is a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation. This publication makes use of data products from the WISE, which is a joint project of the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The national facility capability for SkyMapper has been funded through ARC LIEF grant LE130100104 from the Australian Research Council, awarded to the University of Sydney, the Australian National University, Swinburne University of Technology, the University of Queensland, the University of Western Australia, the University of Melbourne, Curtin University of Technology, Monash University and the Australian Astronomical Observatory. SkyMapper is owned and operated by the Australian National University’s Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics. The survey data were processed and provided by the SkyMapper Team at the ANU. The SkyMapper node of the All-Sky Virtual Observatory (ASVO) is hosted at the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI). Development and support the SkyMapper node of the ASVO has been funded in part by Astronomy Australia Limited (AAL) and the Australian Government through the Commonwealth’s Education Investment Fund (EIF) and National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS), particularly the National eResearch Collaboration Tools and Resources (NeCTAR) and the Australian National Data Service Projects (ANDS). This work has made use of data from the European Space Agency (ESA) mission Gaia (https://www.cosmos.esa.int/gaia), processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC; https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/dpac/consortium). Funding for the DPAC has been provided by national institutions, in particular the institutions participating in the Gaia Multilateral Agreement.

We present high cadence detections of two superflares from a bright G8 star (V = 11.56) with the Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS). We improve upon previous superflare detections by resolving the flare rise and peak, allowing us to fit a solar flare inspired model without the need for arbitrary break points between rise and decay. Our data also enables us to identify substructure in the flares. From changing starspot modulation in the NGTS data we detect a stellar rotation period of 59 hours, along with evidence for differential rotation. We combine this rotation period with the observed \textit{ROSAT} X-ray flux to determine that the star's X-ray activity is saturated. We calculate the flare bolometric energies as $5.4^{+0.8}_{-0.7}\times10^{34}$ and $2.6^{+0.4}_{-0.3}\times10^{34}$ erg and compare our detections with G star superflares detected in the \textit{Kepler} survey. We find our main flare to be one of the largest amplitude superflares detected from a bright G star. With energies more than 100 times greater than the Carrington event, our flare detections demonstrate the role that ground-based instruments such as NGTS can have in assessing the habitability of Earth-like exoplanets, particularly in the era of \textit{PLATO}., 11 pages, 8 figures, Accepted for Publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Context. Quasi-periodic pulsations (QPPs) are time variations in the energy emission during a flare that are observed on both the Sun and other stars and thus have the potential to link the physics of solar and stellar flares. Aims. To characterise the QPPs detected in an X-ray flare on the solar analogue, EK Draconis, which was observed by XMM-Newton. Methods. We use wavelet and autocorrelation techniques to identify the QPPs in a detrended version of the flare. We also fit a model to the flare based on an exponential decay combined with a decaying sinusoid. The flare is examined in multiple energy bands. Results. A statistically significant QPP is observed in the X-ray energy band of 0.2-12.0 keV with a periodicity of 76+/-2 min. When this energy band is split, a statistically significant QPP is observed in the low-energy band (0.2-1.0 keV) with a periodicity of 73+/-2 min and in the high-energy band (1.0-12.0 keV) with a periodicity of 82+/-2 min. When fitting a model to the time series the phases of the signals are also found to be significantly different in the two energy bands (with a difference of 1.8+/-0.2 rad) and the high-energy band is found to lead the low-energy band. Furthermore, the first peak in the cross-correlation between the detrended residuals of the low- and high-energy bands is offset from zero by more than 3{\sigma} (4.1+/-1.3 min). Both energy bands produce statistically significant regions in the wavelet spectrum, whose periods are consistent with those listed above. However, the peaks are broad in both the wavelet and global power spectra, with the wavelet showing evidence for a drift in period with time, and the difference in period obtained is not significant. etc..., Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A, 19 pages, 17 figures

Helioseismology uses the Sun’s natural resonant oscillations to study the solar interior. The properties of the solar oscillations are sensitive to the Sun’s magnetic activity cycle. Here we examine variations in the powers, damping rates, and energy supply rates of the most prominent acoustic oscillations in unresolved, Sun-as-a-star data, obtained by the Birmingham Solar Oscillations Network (BiSON) during solar cycles 22, 23, and the first half of 24. The variations in the helioseismic parameters are compared to the 10.7 cm flux, a well-known global proxy of solar activity. As expected the oscillations are most heavily damped and the mode powers are at a minimum at solar activity maximum. The 10.7 cm flux was linearly regressed using the fractional variations of damping rates and powers observed during cycle 23. In general, good agreement is found between the damping rates and the 10.7 cm flux. However, the linearly regressed 10.7 cm flux and fractional variation in powers diverge in cycles 22 and 24, indicating that the relationship between the mode powers and the 10.7 cm flux is not consistent from one cycle to the next. The energy supply rate of the oscillations, which is usually approximately constant, also decreases at this time. We have determined that this discrepancy is not because of the first-order bias introduced by an increase in the level of background noise or gaps in the data. Although we cannot categorically rule out an instrumental origin, the divergence observed in cycle 24, when the data were of high quality and the data coverage was over 80%, raises the possibility that the effect may be solar in origin.

We embark on a detailed study of the lightcurves of Keplers most Earth-like exoplanet host stars using the full length of Kepler data. We derive rotation periods, photometric activity indices, flaring energies, mass loss rates, gyrochronological ages, X-ray luminosities and consider implications for the planetary magnetospheres and habitability. Furthermore, we present the detection of superflares in the lightcurve of Kepler-438, the exoplanet with the highest Earth Similarity Index to date. Kepler-438b orbits at a distance of 0.166AU to its host star, and hence may be susceptible to atmospheric stripping. Our sample is taken from the Habitable Exoplanet Catalogue, and consists of the stars Kepler-22, Kepler-61, Kepler-62, Kepler-174, Kepler-186, Kepler-283, Kepler-296, Kepler-298, Kepler-438, Kepler-440, Kepler-442, Kepler-443 and KOI-4427, between them hosting 15 of the most habitable transiting planets known to date from Kepler., Accepted by MNRAS, 18 pages, 16 figures

The robust detection of quasi-periodic pulsations (QPPs) in solar and stellar flares has been the topic of recent debate. In light of this, we have adapted a method described by Vaughan (2005) to aid with the search for QPPs in flare time series data. The method identifies statistically significant periodic signals in power spectra, and properly accounts for red noise as well as the uncertainties associated with the data. We show how the method can be further developed to be used with rebinned power spectra, allowing us to detect QPPs whose signal is spread over more than one frequency bin. An advantage of these methods is that there is no need to detrend the data prior to creating the power spectrum. Examples are given where the methods have been applied to synthetic data, as well as real flare time series data with candidate QPPs from the Nobeyama Radioheliograph. These show that, despite the transient nature of QPPs, peaks corresponding to the QPPs can be seen at a significant level in the power spectrum without any form of detrending or other processing of the original time series data, providing the background trends are not too steep., 8 pages, 8 figures, accepted by A&A

Quasi-periodic pulsations (QPPs) appear to be a common feature observed in the light curves of both solar and stellar flares. However, their quasi-periodic nature, along with the fact that they can be small in amplitude and short-lived, makes QPPs difficult to unequivocally detect. In this paper, we test the strengths and limitations of state-of-the-art methods for detecting QPPs using a series of hare-and-hounds exercises. The hare simulated a set of flares, both with and without QPPs of a variety of forms, while the hounds attempted to detect QPPs in blind tests. We use the results of these exercises to create a blueprint for anyone who wishes to detect QPPs in real solar and stellar data. We present eight clear recommendations to be kept in mind for future QPP detections, with the plethora of solar and stellar flare data from new and future satellites. These recommendations address the key pitfalls in QPP detection, including detrending, trimming data, accounting for colored noise, detecting stationary-period QPPs, detecting QPPs with nonstationary periods, and ensuring that detections are robust and false detections are minimized. We find that QPPs can be detected reliably and robustly by a variety of methods, which are clearly identified and described, if the appropriate care and due diligence are taken., Accepted for publication in ApJSS, 46 pages, 29 figures, 7 tables

Quasi-periodic pulsations (QPPs) are a common feature of solar flares, but previously there has been a lack of observational evidence to support any of the theoretical models that might explain the origin of QPPs. We aimed to determine if there are any relationships between the QPP period and other properties of the flaring region, using the sample of flares with QPPs from Pugh et al. (2017b). If any relationships exist then these can be compared with scaling laws for the theoretical QPP mechanisms. To obtain the flaring region properties we made use of the AIA 1600 and HMI data. The AIA 1600 images allow the flare ribbons to be seen while the HMI magnetograms allow the positive and negative magnetic polarity ribbons to be distinguished and the magnetic properties determined. The ribbon properties calculated in this study were the ribbon separation distance, area, total unsigned magnetic flux, and average magnetic field strength. Only the flares that occurred within \pm 60{\deg} of the solar disk centre were included, which meant a sample of 20 flares with 22 QPP signals. Positive correlations were found between the QPP period and the ribbon properties. The strongest correlations were with the separation distance and magnetic flux. Because these ribbon properties also correlate with the flare duration, and the relationship between the QPP period and flare duration may be influenced by observational bias, we also made use of simulated data to check if artificial correlations could be introduced. These simulations show that although QPPs cannot be detected for certain combinations of QPP period and flare duration, this does not introduce an apparent correlation. There is evidence of relationships between the QPP period and flare ribbon properties, and in the future the derived scaling laws between these properties can be compared to equivalent scaling laws for theoretical QPP mechanisms., Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics. 12 pages, 12 figures

We investigate the properties of a set of solar flares originating from a single active region (AR) that exhibit QPPs, and look for signs of the QPP periods relating to AR properties. The AR studied, best known as NOAA 12192, was unusually long-lived and produced 181 flares. Data from the GOES, EVE, Fermi, Vernov and NoRH observatories were used to determine if QPPs were present in the flares. For the soft X-ray GOES and EVE data, the time derivative of the signal was used. Power spectra of the time series data (without any form of detrending) were inspected, and flares with a peak above the 95% confidence level in the spectrum were labelled as having candidate QPPs. The confidence levels were determined taking account of uncertainties and the possible presence of red noise. AR properties were determined using HMI line of sight magnetograms. A total of 37 flares (20% of the sample) show good evidence of having QPPs, and some of the pulsations can be seen in data from multiple instruments and in different wavebands. The QPP periods show a weak correlation with the flare amplitude and duration, but this may be due to an observational bias. A stronger correlation was found between the QPP period and duration of the QPP signal, which can be partially but not entirely explained by observational constraints. No correlations were found with the AR area, bipole separation, or average magnetic field strength. The fact that a substantial fraction of the flare sample showed evidence of QPPs using a strict detection method with minimal processing of the data demonstrates that these QPPs are a real phenomenon, which cannot be explained by the presence of red noise or the superposition of multiple unrelated flares. The lack of correlation between the QPP periods and AR properties implies that the small-scale structure of the AR is important, and/or that different QPP mechanisms act in different cases., Comment: 23 pages, 57 figures. Accepted for publication by Astronomy & Astrophysics

Quasi-periodic pulsations (QPP) are common in solar flares and are now regularly observed in stellar flares. We present the detection of two different types of QPP signals in the thermal emission light curves of the X9.3 class solar flare SOL2017-09-06T12:02, which is the most powerful flare of Cycle 24. The period of the shorter-period QPP drifts from about 12 to 25 seconds during the flare. The observed properties of this QPP are consistent with a sausage oscillation of a plasma loop in the flaring active region. The period of the longer-period QPP is about 4 to 5 minutes. Its properties are compatible with standing slow magnetoacoustic oscillations, which are often detected in coronal loops. For both QPP signals, other mechanisms such as repetitive reconnection cannot be ruled out, however. The studied solar flare has an energy in the realm of observed stellar flares, and the fact that there is evidence of a short-period QPP signal typical of solar flares along with a long-period QPP signal more typical of stellar flares suggests that the different ranges of QPP periods typically observed in solar and stellar flares is likely due to observational constraints, and that similar physical processes may be occurring in solar and stellar flares., Accepted for publication in ApJL

We embark on a study of quasi-periodic pulsations (QPPs) in the decay phase of white-light stellar flares observed by Kepler. Out of the 1439 flares on 216 different stars detected in the short-cadence data using an automated search, 56 flares are found to have pronounced QPP-like signatures in the light curve, of which 11 have stable decaying oscillations. No correlation is found between the QPP period and the stellar temperature, radius, rotation period and surface gravity, suggesting that the QPPs are independent of global stellar parameters. Hence they are likely to be the result of processes occurring in the local environment. There is also no significant correlation between the QPP period and flare energy, however there is evidence that the period scales with the QPP decay time for the Gaussian damping scenario, but not to a significant degree for the exponentially damped case. This same scaling has been observed for MHD oscillations on the Sun, suggesting that they could be the cause of the QPPs in those flares. Scaling laws of the flare energy are also investigated, supporting previous reports of a strong correlation between the flare energy and stellar temperature/radius. A negative correlation between the flare energy and stellar surface gravity is also found., Comment: 19 pages, 15 figures, accepted by Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2016 April 11)

Two different mechanisms may act to induce quasi-periodic pulsations (QPP) in whole-disk observations of stellar flares. One mechanism may be magneto-hydromagnetic (MHD) forces and other processes acting on flare loops as seen in the Sun. The other mechanism may be forced local acoustic oscillations due to the high-energy particle impulse generated by the flare (known as `sunquakes' in the Sun). We analyze short-cadence Kepler data of 257 flares in 75 stars to search for QPP in the flare decay branch or post-flare oscillations which may be attributed to either of these two mechanisms. About 18 percent of stellar flares show a distinct bump in the flare decay branch of unknown origin. The bump does not seem to be a highly-damped global oscillation because the periods of the bumps derived from wavelet analysis do not correlate with any stellar parameter. We detected damped oscillations covering several cycles (QPP), in seven flares on five stars. The periods of these oscillations also do not correlate with any stellar parameter, suggesting that these may be a due to flare loop oscillations. We searched for forced global oscillations which might result after a strong flare. To this end, we investigated the behaviour of the amplitudes of solar-like oscillations in eight stars before and after a flare. However, no clear amplitude change could be detected. We also analyzed the amplitudes of the self-excited pulsations in two delta Scuti stars and one gamma Doradus star before and after a flare. Again, no clear amplitude changes were found. Our conclusions are that a new process needs to be found to explain the high incidence of bumps in stellar flare light curves, that flare loop oscillations may have been detected in a few stars and that no conclusive evidence exists as yet for flare induced global acoustic oscillations (starquakes)., 13 pages, 14 figures, 3 tables

Flares that are orders of magnitude larger than the most energetic solar flares are routinely observed on Sun-like stars, raising the question of whether the same physical processes are responsible for both solar and stellar flares. In this letter we present a white-light stellar superflare on the star KIC9655129, observed by NASA's Kepler mission, with a rare multi-period quasi-periodic pulsation (QPP) pattern. Two significant periodic processes were detected using the wavelet and autocorrelation techniques, with periods of 78 +/- 12 min and 32 +/- 2 min. By comparing the phases and decay times of the two periodicities, the QPP signal was found to most likely be linear, suggesting that the two periodicities are independent, possibly corresponding either to different magnetohydrodynamic modes of the flaring region, or different spatial harmonics of the same mode. The presence of multiple periodicities is a good indication that the QPPs were caused by magnetohydrodynamic oscillations, and suggests that the physical processes in operation during stellar flares could be the same as those in solar flares., Comment: Accepted by The Astrophysical Journal Letters (October 2015). 8 pages with 5 figures