Superflares and variability in solar-type stars with TESS in the Southern hemisphere

Abstract

ABSTRACT Superflares on solar-type stars have been a rapidly developing field ever since the launch of Kepler. Over the years, there have been several studies investigating the statistics of these explosive events. In this study, we present a statistical analysis of stellar flares on solar-type stars made using photometric data in 2-min cadence from Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite of the whole Southern hemisphere (sectors 1–13). We derive rotational periods for all the stars in our sample from rotational modulations present in the light curve as a result of large star-spot(s) on the surface. We identify 1980 stellar flares from 209 solar-type stars with energies in the range of 1031–1036 erg (using the solar flare classification, this corresponds to X1–X100 000) and conduct an analysis into their properties. We investigate the rotational phase of the flares and find no preference for any phase, suggesting the flares are randomly distributed. As a benchmark, we use GOES data of solar flares to detail the close relationship between solar flares and sunspots. In addition, we also calculate approximate spot areas for each of our stars and compare this to flare number, rotational phase, and flare energy. Additionally, two of our stars were observed in the continuous viewing zone with light-curves spanning 1 yr; as a result we examine the stellar variability of these stars in more detail.