No Such Thing as a Simple Flare: Substructure and QPPs Observed in a Statistical Sample of 20 Second Cadence TESS Flares

TL;DR

This study analyzes high-cadence TESS data of 226 low-mass stars, revealing detailed flare substructures, short-period QPPs, and implications for planetary habitability, advancing understanding of stellar flare complexity.

Contribution

It provides the first high-cadence analysis breaking degeneracies in flare profiles, identifying prevalent substructures and short-period QPPs in a large stellar sample.

Findings

46% of large flares show substructure during rise phase

49 candidate QPPs identified, 17 confirmed at 3+ sigma

One-third of 10^34 erg flares reach D90 dose in 20 seconds

Abstract

A 20 second cadence TESS monitoring campaign of 226 low-mass flare stars during Cycle 3 recorded 3792 stellar flares of >10^32 erg. We explore the time-resolved emission and substructure in 440 of the largest flares observed at high S/N, 97% of which released energies of >10^33 erg. We discover degeneracy present at 2 minute cadence between sharply-peaked and weakly-peaked flares is common, although 20 second cadence breaks these degeneracies. We better resolve the rise phases and find 46% of large flares exhibit substructure during the rise phase. We observe 49 candidate quasi-periodic pulsations (QPP) and confirm 17 at 3+ sigma. Most of our QPPs have periods less than 10 minutes, suggesting short period optical QPPs are common. We find QPPs in both the rise and decay phases of flares, including a rise-phase QPP in a large flare from Proxima Cen. We confirm the Davenport et al. (2014) template provides a good fit to most classical flares observed at high cadence, although 9% favor Gaussian peaks instead. We characterize the properties of complex flares, finding 17% of complex flares exhibit "peak-bump" morphologies composed of a large, highly impulsive peak followed by a second more gradual Gaussian peak. We also estimate the UVC surface fluences of temperate planets at flare peak and find 1/3 of 10^34 erg flares reach the D90 dose of D. Radiodurans in just 20 seconds in the absence of an atmosphere.