Statistical Properties of Superflares on Solar-type Stars: Results Using All of the Kepler Primary Mission Data
Soshi Okamoto, Yuta Notsu, Hiroyuki Maehara, Kosuke Namekata, Satoshi Honda, Kai Ikuta, Daisaku Nogami, Kazunari Shibata
Abstract
Abstract We report the latest statistical analyses of superflares on solar-type (G-type main-sequence; effective temperature is 5100–6000 K) stars using all of the Kepler primary mission data and Gaia Data Release 2 catalog. We updated the flare detection method from our previous studies by using a high-pass filter to remove rotational variations caused by starspots. We also examined the sample biases on the frequency of superflares, taking into account gyrochronology and flare detection completeness. The sample sizes of solar-type and Sun-like stars (effective temperature is 5600–6000 K and rotation period is over 20 days in solar-type stars) are ∼4 and ∼12 times, respectively, compared with Notsu et al. As a result, we found 2341 superflares on 265 solar-type stars and 26 superflares on 15 Sun-like stars; the former increased from 527 to 2341 and the latter from three to 26 events compared with our previous study. This enabled us to have a more well-established view on the statistical properties of superflares. The observed upper limit of the flare energy decreases as the rotation period increases in solar-type stars. The frequency of superflares decreases as the stellar rotation period increases. The maximum energy we found on Sun-like stars is 4 × 10 34 erg. Our analysis of Sun-like stars suggests that the Sun can cause superflares with energies of ∼7 × 10 33 erg (∼X700-class flares) and ∼1 × 10 34 erg (∼X1000-class flares) once every ∼3000 and ∼6000 yr, respectively.