The Palomar/MSU Nearby Star Spectroscopic Survey. III. Chromospheric Activity, M Dwarf Ages, and the Local Star Formation History

By J. Gizis, I. Neill Reid, S. Hawley. 2002

250 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We present high-resolution echelle spectroscopy of 676 nearby M dwarfs. Our measurements include radial velocities, equivalent widths of important chromospheric emission lines, and rotational velocities for rapidly rotating stars. We identify several distinct groups by their Hα properties and investigate variations in chromospheric activity among early (M0–M2.5) and mid (M3–M6) dwarfs. Using a volume-limited sample together with a relationship between age and chromospheric activity, we show that the rate of star formation in the immediate solar neighborhood has been relatively constant over the last 4 Gyr. In particular, our results are inconsistent with recent large bursts of star formation. We use the correlation between Hα activity and age as a function of color to set constraints on the properties of L and T dwarf secondary components in binary systems. We also identify a number of interesting stars, including rapid rotators, radial velocity variables, and spectroscopic binaries.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/261ea1b31428b8cd83a83c196eb4052cfac33a7b

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Citations in the corpus

TIME-RESOLVED PROPERTIES AND GLOBAL TRENDS IN dMe FLARES FROM SIMULTANEOUS PHOTOMETRY AND SPECTRA (2013, background): “It is known to be an active star (Gizis et al. 2002) of spectral type dM4e, and its long baseline photometric starspot activity was recently measured by Irwin et al. (2011).”
Large-scale alpha^2-dynamo in low-mass stars and brown dwarfs (2005, background): “While high chromospheric and coronal activity is associated with high rotation velocities for the former ones, M9 and later objects exhibit low activity levels in spite of rapid rotation (Delfosse et al. 1998, Gizis et al. 2002, Mohanty & Basri 2003).”
THE MUSCLES TREASURY SURVEY. I. MOTIVATION AND OVERVIEW (2016, background): “The stars in our sample are considered “optically inactive”, based on their Hα absorption spectra (Gizis et al. 2002).”
A Census of the Chamaeleon I Star-forming Region (2004, background): “For the case of Hα, I have selected a boundary that approximates the upper limit of emission strengths observed in field dwarfs in the diagram of log W λ (Hα) versus spectral type in Figure 15 (Stauffer & Hartmann 1986; Hawley et al. 1996; Delfosse et al. 1998; Gizis et al. 2000, 2002).”
XHIP: An extended hipparcos compilation (2011, background): “Our “B”-grade sources, in order of preference are: Lopez-Santiago et al., 2010; Massarotti et al., 2008; Guillout et al., 2009; Soubiran et al., 2003; Holmberg et al., 2007; Gizis et al., 2002; White et al., 2007; Torres et al., 2006; Kharchenko et al., 2007.”
THE HAWAII INFRARED PARALLAX PROGRAM. I. ULTRACOOL BINARIES AND THE L/T TRANSITION, (2012, unknown): “…Fan et al. (2000); (32) Gatewood & Coban (2009); (33) Geballe et al. (2002); (34) Geyer et al. (1988); (35) Gizis (1997); (36) Gizis et al. (2000); (37) Gizis et al. (2002); (38) Gizis (2002); (39) Harrington et al. (1993); (40) Hawley et al. (2002); (41) Henry & Kirkpatrick (1990); (42) Henry et…”
Large-scale magnetic topologies of late M dwarfs★: Magnetic topologies of late M dwarfs (2010, methodology): “All these stars are known to show signs of activity in Hα or X-rays (e.g. Gizis et al. 2002; Schmitt & Liefke 2004), and photospheric magnetic fields have been measured on most of them from the analysis of Zeeman broadening in molecular bands (see below).”
UV Excess Measures of Accretion onto Young Very Low Mass Stars and Brown Dwarfs (2008, background): “Both stars are chromospherically active, with equivalent widths in Ca II H & K and He I lines that are larger than is typically measured from chromospheres of older, magnetically-active M-dwarfs (e.g. Giampapa et al. 1982; Gizis et al. 2002; Rauscher & Marcy 2006; Allred et al. 2006).”
METALLICITY AND TEMPERATURE INDICATORS IN M DWARF K-BAND SPECTRA: TESTING NEW AND UPDATED CALIBRATIONS WITH OBSERVATIONS OF 133 SOLAR NEIGHBORHOOD M DWARFS (2011, methodology): “The Hα values are from Gizis et al. (2002).”