Starspot activity and superflares on solar-type stars

• Published in: Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan 2017-06, Vol.69 (3)
• Main Authors: Maehara, Hiroyuki, Notsu, Yuta, Notsu, Shota, Namekata, Kosuke, Honda, Satoshi, Ishii, Takako T., Nogami, Daisaku, Shibata, Kazunari
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0004-6264; 2053-051X
• DOI: 10.1093/pasj/psx013

Abstract We analyze the correlation between starspots and superflares on solar-type stars using observations from the Kepler mission. The analysis shows that the observed fraction of stars with superflares decreases as the rotation period increases and as the amplitude of photometric variability associated with rotation decreases. We found that the fraction of stars with superflares among the stars showing large-amplitude rotational variations, which are thought to be the signature of the large starspots, also decreases as the rotation period increases. The small fraction of superflare stars among the stars with large starspots in the longer-period regime suggests that some of the stars with large starspots show a much lower flare activity than the superflare stars with the same spot area. Assuming simple relations between spot area and lifetime and between spot temperature and photospheric temperature, we compared the size distribution of large starspot groups on slowly rotating solar-type stars with that of sunspot groups. The size distribution of starspots shows the power-law distribution and the size distribution of larger sunspots lies on this power-law line. We also found that frequency–energy distributions for flares originating from spots with different sizes are the same for solar-type stars with superflares and the Sun. These results suggest that the magnetic activity we observe on solar-type stars with superflares and on the Sun is caused by the same physical processes.