High-Time-Cadence Spectroscopy and Photometry of Stellar Flares on M-dwarf YZ Canis Minoris with Seimei Telescope and TESS. I. Discovery of Rapid and Short-Duration Prominence Eruptions

TL;DR

This study used high-cadence spectroscopy and photometry to detect rapid, short-duration prominence eruptions on the M-dwarf YZ Canis Minoris, revealing a higher occurrence rate of such events than previously estimated.

Contribution

First high-time-cadence observations of M-dwarf flares revealing rapid prominence eruptions and their frequency, highlighting the importance of high-cadence data for accurate CME studies.

Findings

Detected 27 flares with energies up to 3.8×10^{32} erg.

Identified 8 prominence eruption candidates with velocities up to 450 km/s.

Estimated prominence eruption frequency of at least 1.1 events per day.

Abstract

M-dwarfs show frequent flares and associated coronal mass ejections (CMEs) may significantly impact close-in habitable planets. M-dwarf flares sometimes show red/blue asymmetries in the H$\alpha$ line profile, suggesting prominence eruptions as an early stage of CMEs. However, their high-time-cadence observations are limited. We conducted spectroscopic monitoring observations of the active M-dwarf YZ Canis Minoris with $\sim$1 minute time cadence using the Seimei telescope, simultaneously with the optical photometric observations by Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. We detected 27 H$\alpha$ flares with H$\alpha$ energies ranging from 1.7 $\times$ 10$^{29}$ to 3.8 $\times$ 10$^{32}$ erg and durations from 8 to 319 minutes. Among them, we identified 3 blue asymmetry and 5 red asymmetry events based on criteria using the Bayesian Information Criterion. The maximum velocity of the blue- and red-shifted components ranges from 250 to 450 km s$^{-1}$ and 190 to 400 km s$^{-1}$, respectively. The duration and time evolution show variety, and in particular, we discovered rapid, short-duration blue/red asymmetry events with the duration of 6--8 minutes. Among the 8 blue/red asymmetry events, two blue and one red asymmetry events are interpreted as prominence eruptions because of their fast velocity and time evolution. Based on this interpretation, the lower limit of occurrence frequency of prominence eruptions can be estimated to be $\sim$1.1 events per day. Our discovery of short-duration events suggests that previous studies with low time cadence may have missed these events, potentially leading to an underestimation of the occurrence frequency of prominence eruptions/CMEs.