K2 Ultracool Dwarfs Survey II: The White Light Flare Rate of Young Brown Dwarfs

Abstract

We use Kepler K2 Campaign 4 short-cadence (one-minute) photometry to measure white light flares in the young, moving group brown dwarfs 2MASS J03350208+2342356 (2M0335+23) and 2MASS J03552337+1133437 (2M0355+11), and report on long-cadence (thirty-minute) photometry of a superflare in the Pleiades M8 brown dwarf CFHT-PL-17. The rotation period (5.24 hr) and projected rotational velocity ($45$ km s${}^{-1}$) confirm 2M0335+23 is inflated ($R\ge 0.20R_{\odot }$) as predicted for a $0.06M_{\odot }$, 26-Myr old brown dwarf $\beta$Pic moving group member. We detect 22 white light flares on 2M0335+23. The flare frequency distribution follows a power-law distribution with slope $-\alpha =-1.8\pm 0.2$ over the range $10^{31}$ to $10^{33}$ erg. This slope is similar to that observed in the Sun and warmer flare stars, and is consistent with lower energy flares in previous work on M6-M8 very-low-mass stars; taken the two datasets together, the flare frequency distribution for ultracool dwarfs is a power law over 4.3 orders of magnitude. The superflare ($2.6\times 10^{34}$ erg) on CFHT-PL-17 shows higher energy flares are possible. We detect no flares down to a limit of $2\times 10^{30}$ erg in the nearby L$5\gamma$ AB Dor Moving Group brown dwarf 2M0355+11, consistent with the view that fast magnetic reconnection is suppressed in cool atmospheres. We discuss two multi-peaked flares observed in 2M0335+23, and argue that these complex flares can be understood as sympathetic flares, in which a fast-mode MHD waves similar to EUV waves in the Sun trigger magnetic reconnection in different active regions.

Accepted version, The Astrophysical Journal

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