Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Feb 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010noao.prop..339d&link_type=abstract
NOAO Proposal ID #2010A-0339
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
M dwarf binaries provide coeval laboratories for studying the properties of the most numerous stellar constituents of the Milky Way. However, despite their ubiquity, M dwarfs are intrinsically faint; and, thus, previous studies of M dwarf binaries have been limited to small samples. We have compiled the SLoWPoKES catalog, a large sample of ~1600 wide, low-mass binaries from SDSS astrometry, photometry, and proper motions, which is an order of magnitude larger than previously known wide, low-mass samples. We propose to spectroscopically observe 100 of these pairs, and complete our program started in 2008B, in order to measure their activity as traced by H(alpha) emission and to measure their radial velocities in order to ascertain their absolute space motions. With these measurements, we aim to (1) investigate the intrinsic scatter in activity in low-mass dwarfs using the equal-mass pairs in our sample, (2) determine the evolution of activity in low-mass stars as functions of mass and time, (3) derive an absolute age-activity relationship for M dwarfs, and (4) study the dynamical evolution and survivability of wide binaries as they move through the Milky Way. The main results of this study will be an empirical determination of the mass-age-activity relation for M dwarfs which will provide new constraints on theories of the evolution of M dwarfs.
Dhital Saurav
Stassun Keivan G.
West Andrew A.
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