Activity and Kinematics of Solar Neighborhood White Dwarf-M Dwarf Binaries

As the most populous constituents of our galaxy, low-mass dwarfs are vital to understanding our galaxy’s structure and kinematics.  White Dwarf-M Dwarf binaries (WD+dMs) are one avenue to understanding how magnetic environments around M dwarfs are affected by close companions.  We present the discovery and characterization of 185 new WD+dMs from the SUPERBLINK proper motion survey. Combined with previous catalogs of WD+dMs, we find over 350 spectroscopically confirmed WD+dMs in the SUPERBLINK survey.  We perform a magnetic activity analysis based on Hα chromospheric emission from the M dwarf in these systems.  We find activity fractions higher for early and mid-type M dwarfs than the complementary samples of single stars implying longer activity lifetimes for M dwarfs with close companions. We also present a kinematic analysis of these systems.