AU Microscopii in the FUV: Observations in Quiescence, During Flares, and Implications for AU Mic b and c

Abstract

High energy X-ray and ultraviolet (UV) radiation from young stars impacts planetary atmospheric chemistry and mass loss. The active $\sim 22$ Myr M dwarf AU Mic hosts two exoplanets orbiting interior to its debris disk. Therefore, this system provides a unique opportunity to quantify the effects of stellar XUV irradiation on planetary atmospheres as a function of both age and orbital separation. In this paper we present over 5 hours of Far-UV (FUV) observations of AU Mic taken with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS; 1070-1360 Angstrom) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). We provide an itemization of $120$ emission features in the HST/COS FUV spectrum and quantify the flux contributions from formation temperatures ranging from $10^4-10^7$ K. We detect 13flares in the FUV white-light curve with energies ranging from $10^{29}-10^{31}$ ergs. The majority of the energy in each of these flares is released from the transition region between the chromosphere and the corona. There is a 100$\times$ increase in flux at continuum wavelengths $\hat{I}»<1100$ Angstrom in each flare which may be caused by thermal Bremsstrahlung emission. We calculate that the baseline atmospheric mass-loss rate for AU Mic b is $\sim 10^8$ g s${}^{-1}$, although this rate can be as high as $\sim 10^{14}$ g s${}^{-1}$ during flares with $L_{\text{flare}}\simeq 10^{33}$ erg s${}^{-1}$. Finally, we model the transmission spectra for AU Mic b and c with a new panchromatic spectrum of AU Mic c and motivate future JWST observations of these planets.

29 pages, 12 figures, 3 tables, Accepted to AJ