The flare cumulative frequencies of UV Ceti stars from different spectral types

ABSTRACT In this study, as a result of the photometric observations continued on nine UV Ceti type stars, examining the parameters obtained from the models of distributions of the flare equivalent durations in the logarithmic scale versus flare total durations, it is found that the highest flare equivalent durations occurring on the stars (Plateau values) are varying with the B − V colour indexes of those stars in agreement with the variations of both the magnetic field strength (B) of the magnetic loop and especially the electron density of its plasma (ne). The distributions of flare cumulative frequencies were derived by using the flare equivalent durations, instead of the flare energy. The main result of this study is a secondary variation, which can be just modelled with the damping sine waves, behind the main exponential variation of the flare cumulative frequency. The models indicate that this secondary variation in the flare cumulative frequency distributions is in the same shape with the periodic or quasi-periodic oscillations detected in the light curves of the stellar and solar flares. This caused to ask new questions about the flare mechanism working on stellar atmospheres.

Validation of a helicopter turbulence model on PUMA 330 dynamics

Aircraft and algorithms used in automated flight control are always designed for calm atmospheric conditions; therefore, testing their behaviour in realistic atmospheric conditions implies the necessity for efficient turbulence models. The present paper tests the behaviour of a helicopter in turbulent atmospheric conditions, using two different, complex models and a mathematically derived CETI-type turbulence model, specific to the PUMA 330 helicopter.

Discovery of the Sub-second Linearly Polarized Spikes of Synchrotron Origin in the UV Ceti Giant Optical Flare

During our optical monitoring of UV Ceti, iconic late-type flaring star, with high temporal resolution using the Russian 6-m telescope in 2008, we detected a giant flare with the amplitude of about 3 magnitudes in U band. Near flare maximum, more than a dozen of spike bursts have been discovered with triangular shapes and durations from 0.6 to 1.2 s and maximal luminosities in the range (1.5–8) × 1027 erg s−1. For the half of these events, the linear polarization exceeds 35% with significance better than 5σ. We argue that these events are synchrotron emission of electron streams with the energies of several hundred MeV moving in the magnetic field of about 1.4 kG. Emission from such ultra-relativistic (with energies far exceeding 10 MeV) particles is being routinely observed in solar flares, but has never been detected from UV Ceti-type stars. This is the first ever detection of linearly polarized optical light from the UV Ceti-type stars which indicates that at least some fraction of the flaring events on these stars is powered by a non-thermal synchrotron emission mechanism.

Multiwavelength Studies of Mira Ceti-type Variable Stars

Since 1994, observations of a sample of about 20 Mira Ceti-type and semiregular variables have been carried out in three spectral ranges: radio (H2O maser line λ = 1.35 cm), optical (spectroscopy and UBV photometry) and infrared (JHKLM photometry). Time series of the Hα emission intensity and H2O line flux, covering several periods of the stars, have been obtained. Correlation of the intensity variations of the H2O maser with optical variability in the maser stars RR Aql, U Ori, VX Sgr and others was confirmed. One of the most interesting results is the flare of the H2O maser emission in R Leo, which happened in autumn 1997, 14 months after a flare of the Hα emission.