J/ApJ/960/20 Flare param. from K2 & TESS data of PSR J1023+0038 (Zhang+, 2024)
Properties of PSR J1023+0038 based on Kepler, TESS, and FAST.
Zhang L.-Y., Yang Z., Li B., Su T., Misra P., Han X.L., Long L.
<Astrophys. J., 960, 20 (2024)>
=2024ApJ...960...20Z 2024ApJ...960...20Z
ADC_Keywords: Pulsars; Stars, flare; Photometry; Optical
Keywords: Stellar activity ; Stellar flares ; Pulsars
Abstract:
The pulsar system PSR J1023+0038 is a very interesting binary with
radio millisecond pulsar and low-mass X-ray binary transitions, which
depend on the stellar accretion process. We have used Kepler light
curves with 1 minute cadence and TESS light curves with 2 minute
cadence to study the flare properties of PSR J1023+0038. We detected
516 flare events in the K2 data and 84 flare events in the TESS survey
data. We determined the flare rise and delay times, the flare
durations and amplitudes, and flare energies. We obtained a value of
the power-law index of 0.359±0.023 between the flare energies and
decay times, which is similar to the theoretically predicted value of
1/3. This in turn indicates that PSR J1023+0038 might be exhibiting
physical mechanisms described by magnetic reconnection theory. Using
the maximum likelihood estimation method, we also calculated the
power-law index of the cumulative flare frequency distribution,
finding 1.87±0.27 for the Kepler data and 1.74±0.29 for the
TESS data. Meanwhile, we reduced six FAST observations of PSR_J1023+0038
from 2019-2021 using a standard pulsar search procedure. We report
that we detected a prompt signal with a period compatible with that
found in previous observations of PSR J1023+0038. However, there are
several reasons (statistical, excess DM, pulse shape, etc.) as to why
the association is not likely.
Description:
We have used the light curves of PSR J1023+0038 from the K2 and TESS
surveys to detect flare events and determined the flare properties.
Moreover, we have used the radio data from the Five-hundred-meter
Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) to search for its radio
signal.
The PSR J1023+0038 was observed in the 14th operation of the K2
mission from 2017 May 31 to 2017 August 19. The survey was recorded
using the 1 minute time resolution mode. The wavelength of the Kepler
bandpass covers both the 420 and 900nm bands with a peak at about
600nm. We obtained the data from the Mikulski Archive for Space
Telescope (MAST).
TESS is a space telescope of NASA's explorer program which performs an
all-sky transit survey. The observation time of each sector is about
27 days. The TESS wide-field camera has allowed it to observe 85% of
the sky over the past 2yr, including PSR J1023+0038. The wavelength
range of the photometric bands in the TESS survey is 600-1000nm with a
central wavelength of 786.5nm. The filter of TESS survey is redder
than that of the Kepler survey. We found that PSR J1023+0038 was
observed in four sectors:
Sector 8 in 2019 February 02-27,
Sector 35 in 2021 February 9-March 6,
Sector 45 in 2021 November 6-December 2, and
Sector 46 in 2021 December 2-30. We also downloaded the TESS light
curves from MAST to detect flare events.
In order to search for the radio signal of PSR J1023+0038, we used
archival FAST data from 2019 to 2021. We used the 19 beam receiver of
FAST with a frequency range from 1.0 to 1.5GHz. See Section 2.3.
Objects:
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RA (ICRS) DE Designation(s)
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10 23 47.68 +00 38 41.0 PSR J1023+0038 = TIC 277798746
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File Summary:
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FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
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ReadMe 80 . This file
table2.dat 67 600 Flare parameters of PSR J1023+0038 based on the
Kepler and TESS surveys
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See also:
B/psr : ATNF Pulsar Catalogue (Manchester+, 2005)
IV/34 : K2 Ecliptic Plane Input Catalog (EPIC) (Huber+, 2017)
IV/39 : TESS Input Catalog version 8.2 (TIC v8.2) (Paegert+, 2021)
J/other/Nat/485.478 : Superflares on solar-type stars (Maehara+, 2012)
J/ApJS/209/5 : Superflares of Kepler stars. I. (Shibayama+, 2013)
J/ApJ/851/91 : Stat. of solar white-light flares (Namekata+, 2017)
J/A+A/631/A104 : PSR J1023+0038 VLT, XM and Swift obs. (Baglio+, 2019)
J/ApJ/890/46 : Superflares on solar-type stars from TESS (Tu+, 2020)
J/other/RAA/21.107 : New pulsars from GGPS (Han+, 2021)
J/ApJ/906/72 : 2344 superflares on 266 solar-type stars (Okamoto+, 2021)
J/ApJS/261/26 : Exoplanet host stars from TESS & Kepler (Su+, 2022)
http://www.atnf.csiro.au/research/pulsar/psrcat : Online ATNF pulsar catalogue
Byte-by-byte Description of file: table2.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 4 A4 --- Mission Mission ("K2" or "TESS")
6- 16 F11.6 d Rise [1518.36/3152.34] Rise time; JD-2457000 (1)
18- 28 F11.6 d Delay [1518.38/3152.37] Delay time; JD-2457000 (1)
30- 40 F11.6 d Peak [1518.37/3152.37] Peak time; JD-2457000 (1)
42- 49 F8.6 d Dur [0.0034/0.12] Duration
51- 58 F8.6 --- Amp [0.023/1.65] Amplitude
60- 67 E8.3 10-7J Energy [8.8e+33/2.4e+36] Energy, ergs
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Note (1): Times given in days since the reference epoch. The reference
epochs (Julian Date) for K2 and TESS are 2457000 and 2457000,
respectively.
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History:
From electronic version of the journal
(End) Prepared by [AAS], Emmanuelle Perret [CDS] 24-Feb-2026