A Combined Chandra and LAMOST Study of Stellar Activity

Abstract

Abstract We probed stellar X-ray activity over a wide range of stellar parameters, using Chandra and Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) data. We measured the X-ray-to-bolometric luminosity ratio ( ) for 484 main-sequence stars and found a bimodal distribution for G and K types. We interpret this bimodality as evidence of two subpopulations with different coronal temperatures, which are caused by different coronal heating rates. Using the metallicity and velocity information, we find that both of the subpopulations are mostly located in the thin disk. We find no trend of R X with stellar age for stars older than ∼4 Gyr; there is a trough in the R X versus age distribution, with the lowest range of R X appearing at ages around 2 Gyr. We then examined the correlation between R X and R H α (proxy of chromospheric activity): we find that the two quantities are well correlated, as found in many earlier studies. Finally, we selected a sample of 12 stars with X-ray flares and studied the light-curve morphology of the flares. The variety of flare profiles and timescales observed in our sample suggests the contribution of different processes of energy release.