A New Triggering Mechanism for Red Dwarf Flares

Abstract

The flare phenomenon associated with dMe stars has received much attention in recent years (Gershberg 1975). Most of the flares have been detected in both optical and radio band (Lovell 1969; Kunkel 1974; Karpen et al, 1977). But as expected (Tandon 1976) only a few display weak soft X-ray emission (Karpen et al, 1977; Haiseh and Linsky 1978). Simultaneous X-ray, optical and radio observations of YZ CMi by Karpen et al (1977) shows no X-ray emission above 3σ level accompanying minor flares. Even coincident X-ray coverage with seven radio bursts shows no enhanced X-ray emission. Recently Haisch et al (1981) detected one well resolved X-ray flare on dM5e flare star Proxima Centauri and one coincident optical and radio flare out of five optical and twelve radio flare events. However, the X-ray flare on Proxima Centauri is not accompanied by any ultraviolet, optical or radio emission. Observations on flare stars show that they are more energetic, 10^{2 –} 10³ times, than the corresponding solar flares. Considering the flare activity in dwarf M-stars to be similar but more energetic to that of a large solar flare, Tandon (1961) proposed red dwarf flares to be the source of low energy galactic cosmic rays. This hypothesis has been reexplored recentlv bv Lovell (1974).