The Mouse that Squeaked: A small flare from Proxima Cen observed in the millimeter, optical, and soft X-ray with Chandra and ALMA

TL;DR

This study reports the detection of the smallest stellar millimeter flare from Proxima Centauri, observed across multiple wavelengths, revealing new insights into small-scale stellar flare emissions and their relation to solar flares.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed multi-wavelength analysis of a very small stellar millimeter flare, expanding understanding of flare emissions beyond solar analogs.

Findings

Millimeter emission is common in small stellar flares but often undetected.

The observed flare's energies and temperature are consistent with M-X class solar flares.

Millimeter luminosity exceeds that of similar solar flares by over 100 times.

Abstract

We present millimeter, optical, and soft X-ray observations of a stellar flare with an energy squarely in the regime of typical X1 solar flares. The flare was observed from Proxima Cen on 2019 May 6 as part of a larger multi-wavelength flare monitoring campaign and was captured by Chandra, LCOGT, du Pont, and ALMA. Millimeter emission appears to be a common occurrence in small stellar flares that had gone undetected until recently, making it difficult to interpret these events within the current multi-wavelength picture of the flaring process. The May 6 event is the smallest stellar millimeter flare detected to date. We compare the relationship between the soft X-ray and millimeter emission to that observed in solar flares. The X-ray and optical flare energies of 10$^{30.3\pm0.2}$ and 10$^{28.9\pm0.1}$ erg, respectively, the coronal temperature of T=11.0$\pm$2.1 MK, and the emission measure of 9.5$\pm$2.2 X 10$^{49}$ cm$^{-3}$ are consistent with M-X class solar flares. We find the soft X-ray and millimeter emission during quiescence are consistent with the Gudel-Benz Relation, but not during the flare. The millimeter luminosity is >100X higher than that of an equivalent X1 solar flare and lasts only seconds instead of minutes as seen for solar flares.