No Arabic abstract
We present trigonometric, photometric, and photographic distances to 1748 southern ($delta leq$0$^circ$) M dwarf systems with $mu ge$ 0farcs18 yr$^{-1}$, of which 1404 are believed to lie within 25 parsecs of the Sun. The stars have 6.67 $leq$ $V_J$ $leq$ 21.38 and 3.50 $leq$ ($V_J-K_s$) $leq$ 9.27, covering the entire M dwarf spectral sequence from M0.0V through M9.5V. This sample therefore provides a comprehensive snapshot of our current knowledge of the southern sky for the nearest M dwarfs that dominate the stellar population of the Galaxy. Roughly one-third of the 1748 systems, each of which has an M dwarf primary, have published high quality parallaxes, including 179 from the RECONS astrometry program. For the remaining systems, we offer photometric distance estimates that have well-calibrated errors. The bulk of these ($sim$700) are based on new $V_JR_{KC}I_{KC}$ photometry acquired at the CTIO/SMARTS 0.9m telescope, while the remaining 500 primaries have photographic plate distance estimates calculated using SuperCOSMOS $B_JR_{59F}I_{IVN}$ photometry. Confirmed and candidate subdwarfs in the sample have been identified, and a census of companions is included.
We present results of the largest, most comprehensive study ever done of the stellar multiplicity of the most common stars in the Galaxy, the red dwarfs. We have conducted an all-sky, volume-limited survey for stellar companions to 1120 M dwarf primaries known to lie within 25 pc of the Sun via trigonometric parallaxes. In addition to a comprehensive literature search, stars were explored in new surveys for companions at separations of 2 to 300. A reconnaissance of wide companions to separations of 300 was done via blinking archival images. I-band images were used to search our sample for companions at separations of 2 to 180. Various astrometric and photometric methods were used to probe the inner 2 to reveal close companions. We report the discovery of 20 new companions and identify 56 candidate multiple systems. We find a stellar multiplicity rate of 26.8 +/- 1.4% and a stellar companion rate of 32.4 +/- 1.4% for M dwarfs. There is a broad peak in the separation distribution of the companions at 4 -- 20 AU, with a weak trend of smaller projected linear separations for lower mass primaries. A hint that M dwarf multiplicity may be a function of tangential velocity is found, with faster moving, presumably older, stars found to be multiple somewhat less often. We calculate that stellar companions make up at least 17% of mass attributed to M dwarfs in the solar neighborhood, with roughly 11% of M dwarf mass hidden as unresolved companions. Finally, when considering all M dwarf primaries and companions, we find that the mass distribution for M dwarfs increases to the end of the stellar main sequence.
The study of the stellar formation history in the solar neighborhood is a powerful technique to recover information about the early stages and evolution of the Milky Way. We present a new method which consists of directly probing the formation history from the nearby stellar remnants. We rely on the volume complete sample of white dwarfs within 20 pc, where accurate cooling ages and masses have been determined. The well characterized initial-final mass relation is employed in order to recover the initial masses (1 < M/Msun < 8) and total ages for the local degenerate sample. We correct for moderate biases that are necessary to transform our results to a global stellar formation rate, which can be compared to similar studies based on the properties of main-sequence stars in the solar neighborhood. Our method provides precise formation rates for all ages except in very recent times, and the results suggest an enhanced formation rate for the solar neighborhood in the last 5 Gyr compared to the range 5 < Age (Gyr) < 10. Furthermore, the observed total age of ~10 Gyr for the oldest white dwarfs in the local sample is consistent with the early seminal studies that have determined the age of the Galactic disk from stellar remnants. The main shortcoming of our study is the small size of the local white dwarf sample. However, the presented technique can be applied to larger samples in the future.
We have completed a high-resolution (R=60,000) optical spectroscopic survey of 185 nearby M dwarfs identified using ROSAT data to select active, young objects with fractional X-ray luminosities comparable to or greater than Pleiades members. Our targets are drawn from the NStars 20-pc census and the Moving-M sample with distances determined from parallaxes or spectrophotometric relations. Nearly half of the resulting M dwarfs are not present in the Gliese catalog and have no previously published spectral types. We identified 30 spectroscopic binaries (SBs) from the sample, which have strong X-ray emission due to tidal spin-up rather than youth. This is equivalent to a 16% spectroscopic binary fraction, with at most a handful of undiscovered SBs. We estimate upper limits on the age of the remaining M dwarfs using spectroscopic youth indicators such as surface gravity-sensitive indices (CaH and K I). We find that for a sample of field stars with no metallicity measurements, a single CaH gravity index may not be sufficient, as higher metallicities mimic lower gravity. This is demonstrated in a sub-sample of metal-rich RV standards, which appear to have low surface gravity as measured by the CaH index, yet show no other evidence of youth. We also use additional youth diagnostics such as lithium absorption and strong H-alpha emission to set more stringent age limits. Eleven M dwarfs with no H-alpha emission or absorption are likely old (>400 Myr) and were caught during an X-ray flare. We estimate that our final sample of the 144 youngest and nearest low-mass objects in the field is less than 300 Myr old, with 30% of them being younger than 150 Myr and 4 very young (<10 Myr), representing a generally untapped and well-characterized resource of M dwarfs for intensive planet and disk searches.
We describe the 44 systems discovered to be within 10 parsecs of the Sun by the RECONS team, primarily via the long-term astrometry program at CTIO that began in 1999. The systems --- including 41 with red dwarf primaries, 2 white dwarfs, and 1 brown dwarf --- have been found to have trigonometric parallaxes greater than 100 milliarcseconds (mas), with errors of 0.4--2.4 mas in all but one case. We provide updated astrometric, photometric (VRIJHK magnitudes), spectral type, and multiplicity information here. Among these are 14 systems that are new entries to the 10 parsec sample based on parallaxes measured at the CTIO/SMARTS 0.9m telescope. These are the first parallaxes for nine systems, while the remaining five systems had previously measured parallaxes with errors greater than 10 mas or values placing them beyond 10 parsecs. We also present parallaxes from URAT for seven of these systems, providing additional evidence that they are closer than 10 parsecs. In addition, we provide new data for 22 systems that were previously known to lie within 10 parsecs and 9 systems reported to be closer than that horizon but for which new parallaxes place them further away. In total, we provide data for 75 systems, for which 71 have new or updated parallaxes here. The 44 systems added by RECONS comprise one of every seven systems known within 10 parsecs. We illustrate the evolution of the 10 parsec sample from the 191 systems known when the final Yale Parallax Catalog (YPC) was published in 1995 to the 316 systems known today. Even so close to the Sun, additional discoveries of red and brown dwarfs (and perhaps even white dwarfs) are likely, both as primaries and secondaries, although we estimate that at least 90% of the stellar systems closer than 10 parsecs have now been identified.
Here we present 1584 new southern proper motion systems with mu > 0.18 /yr and 16.5 > R_59F > 18.0. This search complements the six previous SuperCOSMOS-RECONS (SCR) proper motion searches of the southern sky for stars within the same proper motion range, but with R_59F < 16.5. As in previous papers, we present distance estimates for these systems and find that three systems are estimated to be within 25 pc, including one, SCR 1546-5534, possibly within the RECONS 10 pc horizon at 6.7 pc, making it the second nearest discovery of the searches. We find 97 white dwarf candidates with distance estimates between 10 and 120 pc, as well as 557 cool subdwarf candidates. The subdwarfs found in this paper make up nearly half of the subdwarf systems reported from our SCR searches, and are significantly redder than those discovered thus far. The SCR searches have now found 155 red dwarfs estimated to be within 25 pc, including 10 within 10 pc. In addition, 143 white dwarf candidates and 1155 cool subdwarf candidates have been discovered. The 1584 systems reported here augment the sample of 4724 systems previously discovered in our SCR searches, and imply that additional systems fainter than R_59F = 18.0 are yet to be discovered.