Constraints on Stellar Flare Energy Ratios in the NUV and Optical From a Multiwavelength Study of GALEX and Kepler Flare Stars

TL;DR

This study investigates the energy ratios of stellar flares in the NUV and optical wavelengths, revealing significant variability and emphasizing the need for multiwavelength observations to accurately assess planetary irradiation effects.

Contribution

It provides new multiwavelength flare energy ratio measurements, updated spectral energy distribution models, and highlights the large variability in flare energy ratios across different stars and observations.

Findings

No optical counterparts for NUV flares at observed times.

Energy ratio correlates with NUV flare energy over three orders of magnitude.

Optical flare energy upper limits may underestimate true energies.

Abstract

We present a multiwavelength study of stellar flares on primarily G-type stars using overlapping time domain surveys in the near ultraviolet (NUV) and optical regimes. The NUV (GALEX) and optical (Kepler) wavelength domains are important for understanding energy fractionations in stellar flares, and for constraining the associated incident radiation on a planetary atmosphere. We follow up on the NUV flare detections presented in Brasseur et al. 2019, using coincident Kepler long (1557 flares) and short (2 flares) cadence light curves. We find no evidence of optical flares at these times, and place limits on the flare energy ratio between the two wavebands. We find that the energy ratio is correlated with GALEX band energy, and extends over a range of about three orders of magnitude in the ratio of the upper limit of Kepler band flare energy to NUV flare energy at the same time for each flare. The two flares with Kepler short cadence data indicate that the true Kepler band energy may be much lower than the long cadence based upper limit. A similar trend appears for the bulk flare energy properties of non-simultaneously observed flares on the same stars. We provide updated models to describe the flare spectral energy distribution from the NUV through the optical including continua and emission lines to improve upon blackbody-only models. The spread of observed energy ratios is much larger than encompassed by these models and suggests new physics is at work. These results call for better understanding of NUV flare physics and provide a cautionary tale about using only optical flare measurements to infer the UV irradiation of close-in planets.