The first observed stellar X-ray flare oscillation: Constraints on the flare loop length and the magnetic field

Details The first observed stellar X-ray flare oscillation: Constraints on the flare loop length and the magnetic field The first observed stellar X-ray flare oscillation: Constraints on the flare loop length and the magnetic field

2005-03-17

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0503384v1

Astron.Astrophys. 436 (2005) 1041-1047

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Accepted by A&A (03/12/2005)

Scientific paper

10.1051/0004-6361:20052834

We present the first X-ray observation of an oscillation during a stellar flare. The flare occurred on the active M-type dwarf AT Mic and was observed with XMM-Newton. The soft X-ray light curve (0.2-12 keV) is investigated with wavelet analysis. The flare's extended, flat peak shows clear evidence for a damped oscillation with a period of around 750 s, an exponential damping time of around 2000 s, and an initial, relative peak-to-peak amplitude of around 15%. We suggest that the oscillation is a standing magneto-acoustic wave tied to the flare loop, and find that the most likely interpretation is a longitudinal, slow-mode wave, with a resulting loop length of (2.5 +- 0.2) e10 cm. The local magnetic field strength is found to be (105 +- 50) G. These values are consistent with (oscillation-independent) flare cooling time models and pressure balance scaling laws. Such a flare oscillation provides an excellent opportunity to obtain coronal properties like the size of a flare loop or the local magnetic field strength for the otherwise spatially-unresolved star.

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