Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011aas...21720103o&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #217, #201.03; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 43, 2011
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
There is a long-standing discrepancy between theoretical and observational mass-radius relations at the bottom of the main-sequence, namely that the observed radii of low-mass stars are up to 15% larger than predicted. This discrepancy may be related to strong stellar magnetic fields, not properly accounted for in current theoretical models. All previously well-characterized low-mass main-sequence EBs have periods of a few days or less, and their components are therefore expected to be rotating rapidly as a result of tidal synchronization, thus generating strong magnetic fields. We hypothesize that the stars in the binaries with longer orbital periods will better match the assumptions of theoretical stellar models. The Kepler mission has observed close to a thousand detached and semi-detached binaries nearly continuously since May, 2009. We have identified a sample of 10 of these binaries that have either one or two components with masses below 1 solar mass. This sample contains a mixture of shorter period systems that show clear evidence for strong spot activity and longer period systems with no evidence for spot activity. Extensive ground-based follow-up observations will be needed to fully exploit this unique sample. We have begun a program to obtain multi-color photometric observations from Mount Laguna Observatory and spectroscopic observations with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope. We will give a progress report on the observations to date.
Funding for the Kepler mission is provided by NASA's Science Mission Directorate. JAO acknowledges support from the NSF grant AST-0808145. WFW and JAO acknowledge support from the Kepler GO office. TF acknowledges support from the NSF REU program at San Diego State University that is supported by grant AST-0850564.
Belur A.
Fetherolf Tara
Gregg Trevor Ames
Heffner C. M.
Orosz Jerome A.
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