Rachel A. Osten et al. 2009 ApJ 700 1750 doi:10.1088/0004-637X/700/2/1750
Rachel A. Osten1,6,7, N. Phan-Bao2, Suzanne L. Hawley3, I. Neill Reid4 and Roopesh Ojha5
Show affiliationsWe present the results of multi-frequency radio observing campaigns designed to elucidate the nature of radio emission from very low mass stars. We detect radio emission in an additional two epochs of the ultracool dwarf binary LP 349–25, finding that the observed emission is broad band and steady on timescales between 10 s and 10.7 hr, as well as on timescales of 0.6 and 1.6 years. This system is unusual for ultracool dwarfs with detectable radio emission, in exhibiting a lack of any large-scale variability, particularly the bursting (periodic or aperiodic) behavior exhibited by the other objects with detectable levels of radio emission. We explore the constraints that the lack of variability on long- and short-timescales, and flat spectral index, imply about the radio-emitting structures and mechanism. The temporal constraints argue for a high latitude emitting region with a large inclination so that it is always in view, and survives for at least 0.6 years. Temporal constraints also limit the plasma conditions, implying that the electron density be ne < 4 × 105 cm–3 and B< 130 G in order not to see time variations due to collisional or radiative losses from high-energy particles. The observations and constraints provided by them are most compatible with a nonthermal radio emission mechanism, likely gyrosynchrotron emission from a spatially homogeneous or inhomogeneous source. This indicates that, similar to behaviors noted for chromospheric, transition region, and coronal plasmas in ultracool dwarfs, the magnetic activity patterns observed in active higher mass stars can survive to the substellar boundary. We also present new epochs of multi-frequency radio observations for the ultracool dwarfs 2MASS 05233822–140322 and 2MASS14563831–2809473(=LHS 3003); each has been detected in at least one previous epoch but are not detected in the epochs reported here. The results here suggest that magnetic configurations in ultracool dwarfs can be long-lasting, and support the need for further radio monitoring using a simultaneous, multi-frequency observing approach.
radio continuum: stars; stars: activity; stars: coronae; stars: late-type
Issue 2 (2009 August 1)
Received 2008 March 21, accepted for publication 2009 June 3
Published 2009 July 16
Rachel A. Osten et al. 2009 ApJ 700 1750
S. Barraza-Lopez et al 2005 Europhys. Lett. 69 1003
Eric S. Perlman et al. 1998 The Astronomical Journal 115 1253
Daniel C. Fabrycky and Ruth A. Murray-Clay 2010 ApJ 710 1408
B. T. Soifer et al. 2000 The Astronomical Journal 119 509
Dong Eui Chang et al 2003 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 36 3073
Z. G. Dai and K. S. Cheng 2001 ApJ 558 L109
Ata Sarajedini et al. 2007 The Astronomical Journal 133 1658
S Houamer et al 2003 J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 36 3009
J. P. Embs et al 2007 EPL 78 44003