A compact flare eclipsed in the corona of SV Camelopardalis

¹ Astrophysics Division – Research and Science Support Department of ESA, ESTEC, Postbus 299, 2200 AG Noordwijk, The Netherlands e-mail: [jsanz;ffavata]@rssd.esa.int
² INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo, Piazza del Parlamento 1, 90134 Palermo, Italy e-mail: giusi@astropa.unipa.it

Received: 20 June 2005
Accepted: 30 August 2005

Abstract

The eclipsing active binary SV Cam (G0V/K6V,  d) was observed with XMM-Newton during two campaigns in 2001 and 2003. No eclipses in the quiescent emission are clearly identified, but a flare was eclipsed during the 2001 campaign, allowing us to strongly constrain, from purely geometrical considerations, the position and size of the event: the flare is compact and it is formed at a latitude below 65°. The size, temperature and Emission Measure of the flare imply an electron density of  (cm and a magnetic field of ~65-1400 G in order to confine the plasma, consistent with the measurements that are obtained from density-sensitive line ratios in other similar active stars. Average emission seems to come from either extended or polar regions because of lack of eclipses. The Emission Measure Distribution, coronal abundances and characteristics of variability are very similar to other active stars such as AB Dor (K1V).