Superflares on the late-type giant KIC 2852961 -- Scaling effect behind flaring at different energy levels

TL;DR

This study investigates the flaring activity of the late-type giant star KIC 2852961, revealing a broken power-law distribution of flare energies and suggesting a common physical mechanism for flares and superflares influenced by magnetic activity.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed statistical analysis of flares on a giant star, linking flare energies to stellar magnetic activity and proposing a scaling effect behind flare intensity levels.

Findings

Flares follow a broken power-law energy distribution.

Total flare energy correlates with starspot modulation amplitude.

Flares and superflares likely share the same physical origin.

Abstract

The most powerful superflares reaching 10$^{39}$erg bolometric energy are from giant stars. The mechanism behind flaring is supposed to be the magnetic reconnection, which is closely related to magnetic activity including starspots. However, it is poorly understood, how the underlying magnetic dynamo works and how the flare activity is related to the stellar properties which eventually control the dynamo action. We analyse the flaring activity of KIC 2852961, a late-type giant star, in order to understand how the flare statistics are related to that of other stars with flares and superflares and what the role of the observed stellar properties in generating flares is. We search for flares in the full Kepler dataset of the star by an automated technique together with visual inspection. We set a final list of 59 verified flares during the observing term. We calculate flare energies for the sample and perform a statistical analysis. The stellar properties of KIC 2852961 are revised and a more consistent set of parameters are proposed. The cumulative flare energy distribution can be characterized by a broken power-law, i.e. on the log-log representation the distribution function is fitted by two linear functions with different slopes, depending on the energy range fitted. We find that the total flare energy integrated over a few rotation periods correlates with the average amplitude of the rotational modulation due to starspots. Flares and superflares seem to be the result of the same physical mechanism at different energetic levels, also implying that late-type stars in the main sequence and flaring giant stars have the same underlying physical process for emitting flares. There might be a scaling effect behind generating flares and superflares in the sense that the higher the magnetic activity the higher the overall magnetic energy released by flares and/or superflares.