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A flare star is a variable star that can undergo unpredictable dramatic increases in brightness for a few minutes. It is believed that the flares on flare stars are analogous to in that they are due to the magnetic energy stored in the ' atmospheres. The brightness increase is across the spectrum, from to . Flare activity among was first reported by A. van Maanen in 1945, for WX Ursae Majoris and YZ Canis Minoris. However, the best-known flare star is UV Ceti, first observed to flare in 1948. Today similar flare stars are classified as UV Ceti type (using the abbreviation UV) in variable star catalogs such as the General Catalogue of Variable Stars.
Most flare stars are dim , although recent research indicates that less massive might also be capable of flaring. The more massive RS Canum Venaticorum variables (RS CVn) are also known to flare, but it is understood that these flares are induced by a companion star in a binary system which causes the magnetic field to become tangled. Additionally, nine stars similar to the Sun had also been seen to undergo flare events prior to the flood of superflare data from the Kepler observatory. It has been proposed that the mechanism for this is similar to that of the RS CVn variables in that the flares are being induced by a companion, namely an unseen Jupiter-like planet in a close orbit.
The general idea is that flares are generated through the reconnection of the magnetic field lines in the corona. There are several phases for the flare: preflare phase, impulsive phase, flash phase and decay phase. Those phases have different timescales and different emissions across the spectrum. During the preflare phase, which usually lasts for a few minutes, the coronal plasmas slowly heats up to temperatures of tens of millions Kelvin. This phase is mostly visible to soft X-rays and EUV. During the impulsive phase, which lasts for three to ten minutes, a large number of electrons and sometimes also Ion are accelerated to extremely high energies ranging from keV to MeV. The radiation can be seen as gyrosynchrotron radiation in the radio wavelengths and bremsstrahlung radiation in the hard X-rays wavelengths. This is the phase where most of the energy is released. The later flash phase is defined by the rapid increase in Hα emissions. The free streaming particles travel along the magnetic lines, propagating energy from the corona to the lower chromosphere. The material in the chromosphere is then heated up and expands to the corona. Emission in the flash phase is primarily due to thermal radiation from the heated stellar atmosphere. As the material reaches the corona, the intensive release of energy slows down and cooling starts. During the decay phase which lasts for one to several hours, the corona returns back to its original state.
This is the model for how isolated star generates flares but this is not the only way. Interactions between a star and the companion or sometimes the environment can also produce flares. In binary systems such as RS Canum Venaticorum variable stars (RS CVn), flares can be produced through the interactions between the magnetic fields of the two bodies in the systems. For stars that have an accretion disk, which most of the time are protostars or pre-main sequence stars, the interactions of magnetic field between the stars and the disk can also cause flares.
The mean magnetic field has a strength of about (), but this varies significantly on time scales as short as six hours. By comparison, the magnetic field of the Sun averages (), although it can rise as high as () in active sunspot regions.
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