Kepler Flares II: The Temporal Morphology of White-Light Flares on GJ 1243

• Published in: arXiv.org 2014-11
• Main Authors: Davenport, James R A, Hawley, Suzanne L, Hebb, Leslie, Wisniewski, John P, Kowalski, Adam F, Johnson, Emily C, Malatesta, Michael, Peraza, Jesus, Keil, Marcus, Silverberg, Steven M, Jansen, Tiffany C, Scheffler, Matthew S, Berdis, Jodi R, Larsen, Daniel M, Hilton, Eric J
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Basis functions; Constraint modelling; Energy distribution; Flares; Light curve; Morphology; Red dwarf stars; White light
• ISSN: 2331-8422
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.1411.3723

We present the largest sample of flares ever compiled for a single M dwarf, the active M4 star GJ 1243. Over 6100 individual flare events, with energies ranging from \(10^{29}\) to \(10^{33}\) erg, are found in 11 months of 1-minute cadence data from Kepler. This sample is unique for its completeness and dynamic range. We have developed automated tools for finding flares in short-cadence Kepler light curves, and performed extensive validation and classification of the sample by eye. From this pristine sample of flares we generate a median flare template. This template shows that two exponential cooling phases are present during the white-light flare decay, providing fundamental constraints for models of flare physics. The template is also used as a basis function to decompose complex multi-peaked flares, allowing us to study the energy distribution of these events. Only a small number of flare events are not well fit by our template. We find that complex, multi-peaked flares occur in over 80% of flares with a duration of 50 minutes or greater. The underlying distribution of flare durations for events 10 minutes and longer appears to follow a broken power law. Our results support the idea that sympathetic flaring may be responsible for some complex flare events.