Modelling the radio pulses of an ultracool dwarf

Abstract

Recently unanticipated magnetic activity in ultracool dwarfs (UCDs, spectral classes later than M7) have emerged from a number of radio observations. The highly (up to 100%) circularly polarized nature and high brightness temperature of the emission has been interpreted as an effective amplification mechanism of the high-frequency electromagnetic waves, the electron cyclotron maser instability (ECMI). In order to understand the magnetic topology and the properties of the radio emitting region and associated plasmas in these ultracool dwarfs and interpret the origin of radio pulses and their radiation mechanism, we built an active region model, based on the rotation of the UCD and the ECMI mechanism. ECMI mechanism is responsible for the radio bursts from the magnetic tubes and the rotation of the dwarf can modulate the integral of flux with respect to time. The high degree of variability in the brightness and the diverse profile of pulses can be interpreted in terms of a large-scale hot active region with extended magnetic structure existing in the magnetosphere of TVLM 513-46546. We suggest the time profile of the radio light curve is in the form of power law in the model. The radio emitting region consists of complicated substructure. With this model, we can determine the nature (e.g. size, temperature, density) of the radio emitting region and plasma. The magnetic topology can also be constrained. We compare our predicted X-ray flux with Chandra X-ray observation of TVLM 513-46546. Although the X-ray detection is only marginally significant, our predicted flux is significantly lower than the observed flux. We suggest more observations at multi-wavelength will help us understand the magnetic field structure and plasma behavior on the ultracool dwarf.

arXiv comment11 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics, language edited

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• A Panchromatic View of Brown Dwarf Aurorae
• Origin of electron cyclotron maser-induced radio emissions at ultra-cool dwarfs: magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling currents
• Volume-limited radio survey of ultracool dwarfs
• Auroral Radio Emission from Ultracool Dwarfs: a Jovian Model
• Radio Emission from the Exoplanetary System $\epsilon$ Eridani
• The magnetosphere of the ultracool dwarf DENIS 1048-3956
• Evidence for a radiation belt around a brown dwarf
• Weather on Other Worlds. IV. H$\alpha$ emission and photometric variability are not correlated in L0$-$T8 dwarfs
• 325 MHz VLA Observations of Ultracool Dwarfs TVLM 513-46546 and 2MASS J0036+1821104
• Rotational modulation of the linear polarimetric variability of the cool dwarf TVLM 513$-$46546
• Low-resolution optical spectra of ultracool dwarfs with OSIRIS/GTC
• Electron beam induced radio emission from ultracool dwarfs
• Probing the magnetosphere of the M8.5 dwarf TVLM513-46546 by modelling its auroral radio emission. Hint of star exoplanet interaction?
• Search for exoplanets and brown dwarfs with VLBI
• Transitions in magnetic behavior at the substellar boundary