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Register a new userThe Solar Neighborhood XLV. The Stellar Multiplicity Rate of M Dwarfs Within 25 pc
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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.
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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 a large-scale, volume-limited companion survey of 245 late-K to mid-M (K7-M6) dwarfs within 15 pc. Infrared adaptive optics (AO) data were analysed from the Very Large Telescope, Subaru Telescope, Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, and MMT Observatory to detect close companions to the sample from $sim$1 au to 100 au, while digitised wide-field archival plates were searched for wide companions from $sim$100 au to 10,000 au. With sensitivity to the bottom of the main sequence over a separation range of 3 au to 10,000 au, multiple AO and wide-field epochs allow us to confirm candidates with common proper motions, minimize background contamination, and enable a measurement of comprehensive binary statistics. We detected 65 co-moving stellar companions and find a companion star fraction of $23.5 pm 3.2$ per cent over the 3 au to 10,000 au separation range. The companion separation distribution is observed to rise to a higher frequency at smaller separations, peaking at closer separations than measured for more massive primaries. The mass ratio distribution across the $q = 0.2 - 1.0$ range is flat, similar to that of multiple systems with solar-type primaries. The characterisation of binary and multiple star frequency for low-mass field stars can provide crucial comparisons with star forming environments and hold implications for the frequency and evolutionary histories of their associated disks and planets.
We present a Mass-Luminosity Relation (MLR) for red dwarfs spanning a range of masses from 0.62 Msun to the end of the stellar main sequence at 0.08 Msun. The relation is based on 47 stars for which dynamical masses have been determined, primarily using astrometric data from Fine Guidance Sensors (FGS) 3 and 1r, white-light interferometers on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), and radial velocity data from McDonald Observatory. For our HST/FGS sample of 15 binaries component mass errors range from 0.4% to 4.0% with a median error of 1.8%. With these and masses from other sources, we construct a V-band MLR for the lower main sequence with 47 stars, and a K-band MLR with 45 stars with fit residuals half of those of the V-band. We use GJ 831 AB as an analysis example, obtaining an absolute trigonometric parallax, pi_abs = 125.3 +/- 0.3 milliseconds of arc, with orbital elements yielding MA = 0.270 +/- 0.004 Msun and MB = 0.145 +/- 0.002 Msun. The mass precision rivals that derived for eclipsing binaries. A remaining major task is the interpretation of the intrinsic cosmic scatter in the observed MLR for low mass stars in terms of physical effects. In the meantime, useful mass values can be estimated from the MLR for the ubiquitous red dwarfs that account for 75% of all stars, with applications ranging from the characterization of exoplanet host stars to the contribution of red dwarfs to the mass of the Universe.
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 present an analysis of the most massive white dwarf candidates in the Montreal White Dwarf Database 100 pc sample. We identify 25 objects that would be more massive than $1.3~M_{odot}$ if they had pure H atmospheres and CO cores, including two outliers with unusually high photometric mass estimates near the Chandrasekhar limit. We provide follow-up spectroscopy of these two white dwarfs and show that they are indeed significantly below this limit. We expand our model calculations for CO core white dwarfs up to $M=1.334 M_odot$, which corresponds to the high-density limit of our equation-of-state tables, $rho = 10^9$ g cm$^{-3}$. We find many objects close to this maximum mass of our CO core models. A significant fraction of ultramassive white dwarfs are predicted to form through binary mergers. Merger populations can reveal themselves through their kinematics, magnetism, or rapid rotation rates. We identify four outliers in transverse velocity, four likely magnetic white dwarfs (one of which is also an outlier in transverse velocity), and one with rapid rotation, indicating that at least 8 of the 25 ultramassive white dwarfs in our sample are likely merger products.
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