Gavin Ramsay, J. Gerry Doyle, Pasi Hakala, David Garcia-Alvarez, Adam Brooks, Thomas Barclay, Martin Still

Short duration high amplitude flares detected on the M dwarf star KIC 5474065

Figure 2. The Kepler Short Cadence light curve of KIC 5474065 made in Q14. ΔF/F is the ratio of the difference between the flux at any point and the mean flux. The rotational period of 2.47 days is clearly seen as are the short duration flares. In the left hand panel we zoom in on four flares.

Abstract

Using data obtained during the RATS-Kepler project we identified one short duration flare in a 1 hour sequence of ground based photometry of the dwarf star KIC 5474065. Observations made using GTC show it is a star with a M4 V spectral type. Kepler observations made using 1 min sampling show that KIC 5474065 exhibits large amplitude (δF/F>0.4) optical flares which have a duration as short as 10 mins. We compare the energy distribution of flares from KIC 5474065 with that of KIC 9726699, which has also been observed using 1 min sampling, and ground based observations of other M dwarf stars in the literature. We discuss the possible implications of these short duration, relatively low energy flares would have on the atmosphere of exoplanets orbiting in the habitable zone of these flare stars.

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Last Revised: 2013 June 25th