Kepler-411 star activity: connection between starspots and superflares

TL;DR

This study investigates the relationship between starspots and superflares on Kepler-411, revealing a positive correlation between starspot area and flare energy, and providing detailed characterization of starspots and superflares.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel analysis linking starspot areas with superflare energies on Kepler-411 using transit-based spot modeling and long-term light curve analysis.

Findings

Identified 198 starspots with average radius of 17,000 km.

Detected 65 superflares with energies from 10^33 to 10^35 ergs.

Found a positive correlation between starspot area and superflare energy.

Abstract

Stellar magnetic activity, just like that of the Sun, manifests itself in the form of flares and spots on the surface of the star. In the solar case, the largest flares originate from large active regions. In this work, we present a study of the activity of the star Kepler-411, including spot modeling from planetary transits. Our goal was to search for a connection between the area of starspots with the energy of superflares produced by this star. Kepler-411 is a K2V-type star with an average rotation period of 10.52 days, radius of 0.79 $R_{\odot}$ and a mass of 0.83 $M_{\odot} $, which was observed by the Kepler satellite for about 600 days. Transit mapping allowed for the characterization of 198 starspots with estimates of their radius and temperature. Kepler-411 starspots had an average radius of $(17 \pm 7)\times 10^3$ km and a mean temperature of $3800 \pm 700$ K. Visual inspection of the light curves of Kepler-411 yields the identification of 65 superflares. The detected superflares lasted from 8 to 260 min and their energy varied from $10^{33} - 10^{35}$ ergs. The power-law index of the flare frequency distribution as a function of energy is (-2.04 $\pm$ 0.13) for the flare on Kepler-411. A positive correlation between the area of starspots and the energy of superflares was found when considering the averages taken every 16 to 35 days, with the highest correlation occurring for averages every 21 days. This timing is probably related to the lifetime of the Kepler-411 spots.