Near-Ultraviolet Continuum Modeling of the 1985 April 12 Great Flare of AD Leo
First author: Adam F. Kowalski
White-light stellar flares are now reported by the thousands in
long-baseline, high precision, broad-band photometry from missions like Kepler,
K2, and TESS. These observations are crucial inputs for assessments of
biosignatures in exoplanetary atmospheres and surface ultraviolet radiation
dosages for habitable zone planets around low-mass stars. A limitation of these
assessments, however, is the lack of near-ultraviolet spectral observations of
stellar flares. To motivate further empirical investigation, we use a grid of
radiative-hydrodynamic simulations with an updated treatment of the pressure
broadening of hydrogen lines to predict the $\lambda \approx 1800-3300$ \AA
continuum flux during the rise and peak phases of a well-studied superflare
from the dM3e star AD Leo. These predictions are based on semi-empirical
superpositions of radiative flux spectra consisting of a high-flux electron
beam simulation with a large, low-energy cutoff ($\gtrsim 85$ keV) and a
lower-flux electron beam simulation with a smaller, low-energy cutoff
($\lesssim 40$ keV). The two-component models comprehensively explain the
hydrogen Balmer line broadening, the optical continuum color temperature, the
Balmer jump strength, and the far-ultraviolet continuum strength and shape in
the rise/peak phase of this flare. We use spatially resolved analyses of solar
flare data from the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, combined with the
results of previous radiative-hydrodynamic modeling of the 2014 Mar 29 X1 solar
flare (SOL20140329T17:48), to interpret the two-component electron beam model
as representing the spatial superposition of bright kernels and fainter ribbons
over a larger area.