UPDATE: Zenodo migration postponed to Oct 13 from 06:00-08:00 UTC. Read the announcement.

Poster Open Access

Orbital Architectures of M Dwarf Systems: Building the P vs. e Diagram

Vrijmoet, Eliot Halley; Henry, Todd; Jao, Wei-Chun; Tokovinin, Andrei; Dieterich, Serge; Winters, Jennifer; Horch, Elliott

Editor(s)
Wolk, Scott

Comprising three out of every four stars, the M dwarfs form a unique sample that can host companions orbiting at Solar System scales and spanning a factor of 100,000 in mass. Targeting 120 M dwarf binaries within 25 parsecs, we are determining the period vs. eccentricity distribution for M dwarf stellar companions with orbital periods up to 6 years and semimajor axes up to 5 AU. This range is enabled by our combination of multiple observational methods: long-term astrometry from our RECONS program at the CTIO/SMARTS 0.9m is characterizing orbits on decades-long timescales, while our speckle interferometry survey at SOAR with HRCAM+SAM maps shorter orbits of systems identified from Gaia DR2, while also providing resolutions and masses for our long-period astrometric binaries. We will supplement these results with orbits from the literature, from both radial velocity and high-resolution imaging surveys, to ensure that our sample is rich with companions of all types orbiting within 5 AU. Initial results of this work so far suggest a notable paucity of M dwarf stellar companions with circular orbits greater than 5 years in period, showcasing the additional leverage provided by this combination of long-term astrometry and high-resolution imaging. Ultimately, when compared to the orbits of brown dwarf and planetary companions, such structures will be critical to understanding the formation mechanisms of these systems.

Files (3.1 MB)
Name Size
poster.CoolStars.2021.001.png
md5:fa098ba5a93668ba4916e85103a5183b
266.4 kB Download
poster.CoolStars.2021.pdf
md5:3b4ab4f87a6acb965aa088017683297e
2.9 MB Download
  • Bate, M. 2015, Living Together: Planets, Host Stars and Binaries, 496, 37

  • Dupuy & Liu 2017, ApJS, 231, 15

  • Raghavan, D., McAlister, H., Henry, T., et al. 2010, ApJS, 190, 1

  • Tokovinin, A., Cantarutti, R., Tighe, R., et al 2016, PASP, 128, 125003

111
46
views
downloads
All versions This version
Views 111111
Downloads 4646
Data volume 95.3 MB95.3 MB
Unique views 102102
Unique downloads 3939

Share

Cite as