Letter to the Editor

Prospects for radio detection of stellar plasma beams

¹ ASTRON, Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, Oude Hoogeveensedijk 4, 7991 PD Dwingeloo, The Netherlands
e-mail: vedantham@astron.nl
² Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

Received: 3 June 2020
Accepted: 21 June 2020

Abstract

Violent solar eruptions are often accompanied by relativistic beams of charged particles. In the solar context they are referred to as solar particle events and are known to generate a characteristic swept-frequency radio burst. Due to their ionising potential, these beams influence atmospheric chemistry and habitability. Radio observations provide a crucial discriminant between stellar flares that do and do not generate particle beams. Here I use solar empirical data and semi-quantitative theoretical estimates to gauge the feasibility of detecting the associated radio bursts. My principal conclusion is that a dedicated search for swept frequency radio bursts on second timescales in existing low-frequency (ν ≲ 10² MHz) datasets, while technically challenging, will likely provide the evidence high-energy particles beams in Sun-like stars.