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A search for flares and mass ejections on young late-type stars in the open cluster Blanco-1
We present a search for stellar activity (flares and mass ejections) in a
sample of 28 stars in the young open cluster Blanco-1. We use optical spectra
obtained with ESO's VIMOS multi-object spectrograph installed on the VLT. From
the total observing time of 5 hours, we find four H flares but
no distinct indication of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) on the investigated
dK-dM stars. Two flares show "dips" in their light-curves right before their
impulsive phases which are similar to previous discoveries in photometric
light-curves of active dMe stars. We estimate an upper limit of 4 CMEs per
day per star and discuss this result with respect to a semi- empirical
estimation of the CME rate of main-sequence stars. We find that we should have
detected at least one CME per star with a mass of 1-15 g
depending on the star's X-ray luminosity, but the estimated H fluxes
associated with these masses are below the detection limit of our observations.
We conclude that the parameter which mainly influences the detection of stellar
CMEs using the method of Doppler-shifted emission caused by moving plasma is
not the spectral resolution or velocity but the flux or mass of the CME.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, accepted 2014 June 10, received
2014 June 5, in original form 2014 March 24, 14 pages, 5 figure
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