Observational signature of continuously operating drivers of decayless kink oscillation

Abstract

Context. Decayless kink oscillations, which are nearly omnipresent in the solar corona, are believed to be driven by continuously operating energy supply. Aims. In this Letter, we investigate an external continuous excitation of an apparent decayless oscillation during an X1.1 flare on June 20, 2023 (SOL2023-06-20T16:42). Methods. The decayless kink oscillation was identified in the coronal loop at extreme ultraviolet (EUV) wavelengths and the associated flare quasi-periodic pulsations (QPPs) were simultaneously observed in passbands of hard X-ray (HXR), microwave, and ultraviolet (UV) emissions. Results. The kink oscillation is detected as a transverse oscillation of the coronal loop, which reveals five apparent cycles with an average period of about 130 ± 10 s. The oscillation amplitude does not show any significantly decay, suggesting a decayless oscillation. At the same time, the solar flare occurs in the vicinity of the oscillating loop and exhibits five main pulses in HXR, microwave, and UV emissions, which could be regarded as flare QPPs. They have similar periods of about 100–130 s, which may indicate successive and repetitive energy releases during the flare impulsive phase. The peak of each loop oscillation cycle appears to follow the pulse of the QPPs, suggesting that the transverse oscillation is closely associated with flare QPPs. Conclusions. Our observations support the scenario where the repetitive energy released following flare QPPs could be invoked as external, continuously operating drivers of the apparent decayless kink oscillation.