Statistical studies of solar white-light flares

DOI

Recently, many superflares on solar-type stars have been discovered as white- light flares (WLFs). The statistical study found a correlation between their energies (E) and durations ({tau}): {tau}{propto}E^0.39^, similar to those of solar hard/soft X-ray flares, {tau}{propto}E^0.2-0.33^. This indicates a universal mechanism of energy release on solar and stellar flares, i.e., magnetic reconnection. We here carried out statistical research on 50 solar WLFs observed with Solar Dynamics Observatory/HMI and examined the correlation between the energies and durations. As a result, the E-{tau} relation on solar WLFs ({tau}{propto}E^0.38^) is quite similar to that on stellar superflares ({tau}{propto}E^0.39^). However, the durations of stellar superflares are one order of magnitude shorter than those expected from solar WLFs. We present the following two interpretations for the discrepancy: (1) in solar flares, the cooling timescale of WLFs may be longer than the reconnection one, and the decay time of solar WLFs can be elongated by the cooling effect; (2) the distribution can be understood by applying a scaling law ({tau}{propto}E^1/3^B^-5/3^) derived from the magnetic reconnection theory. In the latter case, the observed superflares are expected to have 2-4 times stronger magnetic field strength than solar flares.

Identifier
DOI http://doi.org/10.26093/cds/vizier.18510091
Source https://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/lp/custom/CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/851/91
Related Identifier https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/ApJ/851/91
Related Identifier http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/851/91
Metadata Access http://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/pmh/pubreg.xml?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_b2find&identifier=ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/851/91
Provenance
Creator Namekata K.; Sakaue T.; Watanabe K.; Asai A.; Maehara H.; Notsu Y.,Notsu S.; Honda S.; Ishii T.T.; Ikuta K.; Nogami D.; Shibata K.
Publisher CDS
Publication Year 2018
Rights https://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.html
OpenAccess true
Contact CDS support team <cds-question(at)unistra.fr>
Representation
Resource Type Dataset; AstroObjects
Discipline Astrophysical Processes; Astrophysics and Astronomy; Natural Sciences; Physics; Solar System Astronomy; Stellar Astronomy