Stellar flares cannot explain the Galactic 511\,keV emission

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Original abstract

The origin of the 511\,keV line signal in the Milky Way remains unresolved despite decades of observations. The measured flux of $\sim 3 \times 10^{-3}\,\mathrm{ph\,cm^{-2}\,s^{-1}}$ suggests a steady-state positron injection rate of $\sim 10^{43}$--$10^{44}\,\mathrm{e^+\,s^{-1}}$. One proposed contributor to this signal is stellar flaring activity since high energy Solar flares are known to produce positrons and associated annihilation radiation. We estimate the quasi-persistent 511\,keV luminosity expected from flaring stellar populations and estimate the Galactic contribution. We constrain the 511\,keV fluxes for different sources in the Galaxy, and in particular globular clusters. Using Solar flare observations as a calibration baseline, we construct a hierarchical Bayesian model to link flare energy to 511\,keV luminosity. We further use flare frequency-energy distributions to estimate the time-averaged positron output of stellar populations. The resulting predictions are compared with INTEGRAL/SPI observations using spatial and population-based models. We find that stellar flares fall short by several orders of magnitude in explaining the Galactic positron annihilation rate. Reproducing $\sim10\%$ of the observed luminosity in the Galactic bulge would require unphysically large maximum flare energies per star reaching up to $E_\mathrm{max} \gtrsim 10^{37-39}\,\mathrm{erg}$. Spatial modeling further shows that stellar flare scenarios cannot reproduce the observed 511\,keV morphology. Stellar flares cannot be the dominant source of Galactic positrons. Although previous studies have shown that the measured 511\,keV morphology is broadly consistent with old stellar populations, our results exclude normal stellar flaring activity as the underlying source for this emission.

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