Abstract
The white light during M dwarf flares has long been known to exhibit the broadband shape of a T≈10 000 K blackbody, and the white light in solar-flares is thought to arise primarily from hydrogen recombination. Yet, a current lack of broad-wavelength coverage solar flare spectra in the optical/near-UV region prohibits a direct comparison of the continuum properties to determine if they are indeed so different. New spectroscopic observations of a secondary flare during the decay of a megaflare on the dM4.5e star YZ CMi have revealed multiple components in the white-light continuum of stellar flares, including both a blackbody-like spectrum and a hydrogen-recombination spectrum. One of the most surprising findings is that these two components are anti-correlated in their temporal evolution. We combine initial phenomenological modeling of the continuum components with spectra from radiative hydrodynamic models to show that continuum veiling causes the measured anti-correlation. This modeling allows us to use the components’ inferred properties to predict how a similar spatially resolved, multiple-component, white-light continuum might appear using analogies to several solar-flare phenomena. We also compare the properties of the optical stellar flare white light to Ellerman bombs on the Sun.
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Solar Flare Magnetic Fields and Plasmas
Guest Editors: Y. Fan and G.H. Fisher
J.P. Wisniewski is a NSF Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow.
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Kowalski, A.F., Hawley, S.L., Holtzman, J.A. et al. The Multiple Continuum Components in the White-Light Flare of 16 January 2009 on the dM4.5e Star YZ CMi. Sol Phys 277, 21–29 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-011-9839-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-011-9839-x