X-Ray Superflares on CC Eri
- Aryabhatta Research Institute of observational sciencES (ARIES), Nainital 263002 (India)
We present an in-depth study of two superflares (F1 and F2) detected on an active binary star CC Eridani by the Swift observatory. These superflares triggered the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) in the hard X-ray band on 2008 October 16 and 2012 February 24. The rise phases of both the flares were observed only with BAT, whereas the decay phases were observed simultaneously with the X-ray Telescope. It has been found that the flares decay faster in the hard X-ray band than in the soft X-ray band. Both flares F1 and F2 are highly energetic with respective peak X-ray luminosities of ∼10{sup 32.2} and ∼10{sup 31.8} erg s{sup −1} in 0.3–50 keV energy band, which are larger than any other flares previously observed on CC Eri. The time-resolved spectral analysis during the flares shows the variation in the coronal temperature, emission measure, and abundances. The elemental abundances are enhanced by a factor of ∼8 to the minimum observed in the post-flare phase for the flare F1. The observed peak temperatures in these two flares are found to be 174 and 128 MK. Using the hydrodynamic loop modeling, we derive loop lengths for both the flares as 1.2 ± 0.1 × 10{sup 10} cm and 2.2 ± 0.6 × 10{sup 10} cm, respectively. The Fe Kα emission at 6.4 keV is also detected in the X-ray spectra and we model the Kα emission feature as fluorescence from the hot flare source irradiating the photospheric iron. These superflares are the brightest, hottest, and shortest in duration observed thus far on CC Eri.
- OSTI ID:
- 22872727
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 840, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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