The Second Arecibo Search for 5 GHz Radio Flares from Ultracool Dwarfs

TL;DR

This study reports on a radio survey of ultracool dwarfs using Arecibo, detecting sporadic flares from a T6 dwarf, and discusses implications for magnetic activity across spectral types.

Contribution

First comprehensive radio survey of ultracool dwarfs at 4.75 GHz revealing flaring activity and challenging existing theories of magnetic field evolution.

Findings

Detected sporadic radio flares from a T6 dwarf.

Overall radio-flaring detection rate of ~5%.

Radio luminosity does not decline monotonically with spectral type.

Abstract

We describe our second installment of the 4.75 GHz survey of ultracool dwarfs (UCDs) conducted with the Arecibo radio telescope, which has observed 27 such objects and resulted in the detection of sporadic flaring from the T6 dwarf, WISEPC J112254.73+255021.5. We also present follow up observations of the first radio-emitting T dwarf, 2MASS J10475385+2124234, a tentatively identified radio emitting L1 dwarf, 2MASS J1439284+192915, and the known radio-flaring source, 2MASS J13142039+132011 AB. Our new data indicate that 2MASS J1439284+192915 is not a radio flaring source. The overall detection rate of our unbiased survey for radio-flaring UCDs is ~5% for new sources, with a detection rate for each spectral class of ~5-10%. Evidently, radio luminosity of the UCDs does not appear to monotonically decline with spectral type from M7 dwarfs to giant planets, in contradiction to theories of the magnetic field generation and internal structure of these objects. Along with other, recently published results, our data exemplify the unique value of using radio surveys to reveal and study properties of substellar magnetic activity.