Sub-second cadence structure of optical flares on AD Leo
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arXiv
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2026
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| author | Schmercz, B. Seli, B. Vida, K. Kriskovics, L. Görgei, A. Oláh, K. Regály, Zs. |
| author_facet | Schmercz, B. Seli, B. Vida, K. Kriskovics, L. Görgei, A. Oláh, K. Regály, Zs. |
| contents | Stellar flares are sudden brightenings caused by magnetic reconnection and are frequently observed on late-type stars. High-cadence photometry of flares provides valuable insights into the mechanisms of these events, yet such observations remain scarce. We seek to explore the sub-second fine structure of stellar flares and assess the information content in high-speed photometry. New 0.3 s-cadence photometry from a six-year-long observing campaign of the active M-dwarf AD Leo is presented. We use time--frequency analysis to detect quasi-periodic pulsations in the decay phase of flares. We explore statistical measures of time series complexity of the detected flares to quantify the information gain achievable with high-cadence photometry. We detect 42 flares in 211 hours of observations. The flare frequency distribution is consistent with the previous literature. We find no quasi-periodic pulsations with periods below a few seconds, and identify two candidate signals with periods around 1 and 3 min. Using different measures of complexity on the binned flare light curves we confirm the advantages of high observing cadence. However, we also find a plateau up to a binning of ~4--5 s for a few complex flares, suggesting that an exposure time of a few seconds is usually enough to retain most of the information carried by a single-filter observation. New photometric observations of AD Leo revealed sub-structures of flare light curves on the timescale of a few seconds, but we found no features on timescales below that. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_21726 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Sub-second cadence structure of optical flares on AD Leo Schmercz, B. Seli, B. Vida, K. Kriskovics, L. Görgei, A. Oláh, K. Regály, Zs. Solar and Stellar Astrophysics Stellar flares are sudden brightenings caused by magnetic reconnection and are frequently observed on late-type stars. High-cadence photometry of flares provides valuable insights into the mechanisms of these events, yet such observations remain scarce. We seek to explore the sub-second fine structure of stellar flares and assess the information content in high-speed photometry. New 0.3 s-cadence photometry from a six-year-long observing campaign of the active M-dwarf AD Leo is presented. We use time--frequency analysis to detect quasi-periodic pulsations in the decay phase of flares. We explore statistical measures of time series complexity of the detected flares to quantify the information gain achievable with high-cadence photometry. We detect 42 flares in 211 hours of observations. The flare frequency distribution is consistent with the previous literature. We find no quasi-periodic pulsations with periods below a few seconds, and identify two candidate signals with periods around 1 and 3 min. Using different measures of complexity on the binned flare light curves we confirm the advantages of high observing cadence. However, we also find a plateau up to a binning of ~4--5 s for a few complex flares, suggesting that an exposure time of a few seconds is usually enough to retain most of the information carried by a single-filter observation. New photometric observations of AD Leo revealed sub-structures of flare light curves on the timescale of a few seconds, but we found no features on timescales below that. |
| title | Sub-second cadence structure of optical flares on AD Leo |
| topic | Solar and Stellar Astrophysics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.21726 |