Very Short-Duration UV-B Optical Flares in RS CVn-type Star Systems

Volume 41 number 1 (2013)

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Gary A. Vander Haagen

Stonegate Observatory, 825 Stonegate Road, Ann Arbor, MI; garyvh2@gmail.com

Abstract

Very short duration UV-B optical flares were observed during a high-cadence search for conventional flares on three RS CVn type stars: AR Lac, II Peg, and UX Ari. A statistical criterion was developed for isolating these short-duration optical flares from random photon events. Five flares, ranging in duration from 30 to 85 ms with peaks 0.29-0.51 mag. above the mean, were detected within the 132 hours of monitoring time. The time resolution of the observations was 5 ms for AR Lac and 10 ms for II Peg and UX Ari.