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intro: add description what spot modulation/phase mean

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Physics_Thesis_Template/content/chapter-introduction.tex
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This chapter gives a brief introduction to the goals of this study, the state of the art, scientific backgrounds such as spectral types, spots and flares, as well as to the space missions from which data has been extensively used for the present study.\\ This chapter gives a brief introduction to the goals of this study, the state of the art, scientific backgrounds such as spectral types, spots and flares, as well as to the space missions from which data has been extensively used for the present study.\\
The goal of this study is to relate flares/superflares to the appearance of spots on the surfaces of stars of various spectral types. Flares are well studied for the Sun \citep{solar_flares_1,solar_flares_2,solar_flares_3} with the first recorded event being the Carrington event from September 1859 \citep{Carrington_event}. The same accounts for the impact of stellar activity on Earths magnetic field \citep{solar_flare_mag_field}. A detailed description of spots and flares is given in section \ref{sec:intro:flares_and_spots}. The goal of this study is to relate flares/superflares to the appearance of spots on the surfaces of stars of various spectral types. Flares are well studied for the Sun \citep{solar_flares_1,solar_flares_2,solar_flares_3} with the first recorded event being the Carrington event from September 1859 \citep{Carrington_event}. The same accounts for the impact of stellar activity on Earths magnetic field \citep{solar_flare_mag_field}. A detailed description of spots and flares is given in section \ref{sec:intro:flares_and_spots}.
While the first stellar flares were discovered in middle of the last century \citep{early_stellar_flares1,early_stellar_flares2}, the topic gained a lot of attraction with the launch of the likes of Kepler \citep{Kepler_first_results} and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) \citep{TESS_release}. They allowed the survey of thousands of stars. With this, studies of flares and superflares on a large number of stars have been conducted \citep{flare_study_1,flare_study_2,connection_starspots_flares_ms_kepler,flare_occurance_periodicity}, but the origin of superflares (flares with a bolometric energy above $10^{33}$ erg) is still not clear. So far no superflare has been observed on our Sun, but there have been studies focusing on the possible origin on superflares and their likelyhood to happen on our Sun \citep{superflares_on_sun}. They found that superflares on our Sun would be rare events (every \textasciitilde800 years for superflares with $10^{34}$ erg). Even more recently \citet{superflare_shapiro} estimated the occurrence rate of superflares with $>10^{34}$ erg on Sun-like stars to roughly once per century.\\ While the first stellar flares were discovered in middle of the last century \citep{early_stellar_flares1,early_stellar_flares2}, the topic gained a lot of attraction with the launch of the likes of Kepler \citep{Kepler_first_results} and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) \citep{TESS_release}. They allowed the survey of thousands of stars. With this, studies of flares and superflares on a large number of stars have been conducted \citep{flare_study_1,flare_study_2,connection_starspots_flares_ms_kepler,flare_occurance_periodicity}, but the origin of superflares (flares with a bolometric energy above $10^{33}$ erg) is still not clear. So far no superflare has been observed on our Sun, but there have been studies focusing on the possible origin on superflares and their likelyhood to happen on our Sun \citep{superflares_on_sun}. They found that superflares on our Sun would be rare events (every \textasciitilde800 years for superflares with $10^{34}$ erg). Even more recently \citet{superflare_shapiro} estimated the occurrence rate of superflares with $>10^{34}$ erg on Sun-like stars to roughly once per century.\\
A few proposed generation mechanisms for superflares could be star-planet interaction (SPI) \citep{au_mic_flaring_spi,SPI_1,SPI_2}, or just being scaled up version of normal flares which we see from our Sun coming from large spots \citep{superflares_1,superflares_2}. In the case of the latter, we would expect to see a correlation between the appearance of superflares and the phase.\\ A few proposed generation mechanisms for superflares could be star-planet interaction (SPI) \citep{au_mic_flaring_spi,SPI_1,SPI_2}, or just being scaled up version of normal flares which we see from our Sun coming from large spots \citep{superflares_1,superflares_2}. In the latter case, we would expect to see a correlation between the appearance of superflares and the spot modulation/phase (spots or spot groups rotating in and out of the visible disk of a star, periodically slightly dimming it).
%Due to the possible longevity of spots, up to several months on the sun \citep{sunspots_overview}, it is possible to fold lightcurves \\
\section{State of the art \label{sec:intro:goals}} \section{State of the art \label{sec:intro:goals}}