Coherent radio emission from a population of RS Canum Venaticorum systems

TL;DR

This study reports the detection of 14 RS CVn binary systems emitting coherent radio waves at 144MHz, revealing insights into stellar magnetic interactions and plasma conditions using LOFAR survey data.

Contribution

It is the first large-scale identification of coherent radio emission from multiple RS CVn systems, demonstrating the electron cyclotron maser as the emission mechanism and exploring possible acceleration processes.

Findings

14 RS CVn systems exhibit coherent radio emission.

Emission is powered by electron cyclotron maser instability.

Shell or horseshoe masers may operate in stellar magnetospheres.

Abstract

Coherent radio emission from stars can be used to constrain fundamental coronal plasma parameters, such as plasma density and magnetic field strength. It is also a probe of chromospheric and magnetospheric acceleration mechanisms. Close stellar binaries, such as RS Canum Venaticorum (RS CVn) systems, are particularly interesting as their heightened level of chromospheric activity and possible direct magnetic interaction make them a unique laboratory to study coronal and magnetospheric acceleration mechanisms. RS CVn binaries are known to be radio-bright but coherent radio emission has only conclusively been detected previously in one system. Here, we present a population of 14 coherent radio emitting RS CVn systems. We identified the population in the ongoing LOFAR Two Metre Sky Survey as circularly polarised sources at 144MHz that are astrometrically associated with known RS CVn binaries. We show that the observed emission is powered by the electron cyclotron maser instability. We use numerical calculations of the maser's beaming geometry to argue that the commonly invoked 'loss-cone' maser cannot generate the necessary brightness temperature in some of our detections and that a more efficient instability, such as the shell or horseshoe maser, must be invoked. Such maser configurations are known to operate in planetary magnetospheres. We also outline two acceleration mechanisms that could produce coherent radio emission, one where the acceleration occurs in the chromosphere and one where the acceleration is due to an electrodynamic interaction between the stars. We propose radio and optical monitoring observations that can differentiate between these two mechanisms.