A recurrent 70–100 min quasi-periodic pulsation in the intermediate-aged mid-M dwarf GJ 3512

Abstract

We report the discovery of a recurrent quasi-periodic pulsation (QPP) in the late-M dwarf GJ 3512 (M5.5V) using multiple Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) data sets. A strong signal with a period of 70–100min was detected in wavelet analyses of the two-minute cadence light curve from Sector 20. This signal was detected also in observations from Sectors 47 and 60. The QPP persisted for weeks in sector 20 and spanned nearly three years of TESS coverage. There was no significant damping between major flares. This behaviour contrasts with that of previously reported stellar QPPs, which are confined to individual flares and decay on time-scales of minutes to hours. The oscillation amplitude is at the milli-magnitude level. A pulsation origin is discarded since theoretical instability strips for 100-min pulsations are restricted to pre-main sequence stars, while GJ 3512 is an intermediate age (2–8Gyr) mainsequence dwarf. The persistence across independent TESS sectors discards an instrumental artefact origin and points to a likely coronal origin instead, such as oscillatory reconnection or thermal non-equilibrium cycles in large active regions. This represents the first detection of a likely sustained QPP with these characteristics in a late-type star, highlighting the need for further investigation into physical mechanisms behind such variability.