The Evolution of Flare Activity with Stellar Age

Understand

Using a recent census of flare stars from the Kepler survey, we have explored how flare activity evolves across stellar main sequence lifetimes.

• We utilize a sample of 347 stars with robust flare activity detections, and which have rotation periods measured via starspot modulations in their Kepler light curves.
• We consider three separate methods for quantifying flare activity from optical light curves, and compare their utility for comparing flare activity between stars of differing ages and luminosities.
• These metrics include: the fractional luminosity emitted in flares, the specific rate of flares emitted at a given energy, and a model for the entire flare frequency distribution.