The Shape of M Dwarf Flares in Kepler Light Curves

TL;DR

This study analyzes Kepler light curves of the active M4 dwarf GJ 1243, creating a large flare catalog and an empirical flare template to improve understanding and detection of stellar flares, especially complex multi-peaked events.

Contribution

The paper presents the largest flare catalog for a single star and introduces a high-fidelity empirical flare template based on Kepler data.

Findings

Over 6100 flares identified on GJ 1243

The flare template reveals a rapid rise and two cooling phases

Complex, multi-peaked flares are more common at higher energies

Abstract

Ultra-precise light curves from Kepler provide the best opportunity to determine rates and statistical properties of stellar flares. From 11 months of data on the active M4 dwarf, GJ 1243, we have built the largest catalog of flares for a single star: over 6100 events. Combining 885 of our most pristine flares, we generated an empirical white-light flare template. This high-fidelity template shows a rapid initial rise, and two distinct exponential cooling phases. This template is useful in constraining flare energies and for improved flare detection in many surveys. Complex, multi-peaked events are more common for higher energy flares in this sample. Using our flare template we characterize the structure of complex events. In this contributed talk, I presented results from our boutique study of GJ 1243, and described an expanded investigation of the structure of complex flares and their connection to solar events.