THE ASTRALUX LARGE M-DWARF MULTIPLICITY SURVEY

By M. Janson, F. Hormuth, C. Bergfors, W. Brandner, S. Hippler, S. Daemgen, N. Kudryavtseva, E. Schmalzl, C. Schnupp, Th. Henning. 2012

146 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We present the results of an extensive high-resolution imaging survey of M-dwarf multiplicity using the Lucky Imaging technique. The survey made use of the AstraLux Norte camera at the Calar Alto 2.2 m telescope and the AstraLux Sur camera at the ESO New Technology Telescope in order to cover nearly the full sky. In total, 761 stars were observed (701 M-type and 60 late K-type), among which 182 new and 37 previously known companions were detected in 205 systems. Most of the targets have been observed during two or more epochs, and could be confirmed as physical companions through common proper motion, often with orbital motion being confirmed in addition. After accounting for various bias effects, we find a total M-dwarf multiplicity fraction of 27% ± 3% within the AstraLux detection range of 0.″08–6″ (semimajor axes of ∼3–227 AU at a median distance of 30 pc). We examine various statistical multiplicity properties within the sample, such as the trend of multiplicity fraction with stellar mass and the semimajor axis distribution. The results indicate that M-dwarfs are largely consistent with constituting an intermediate step in a continuous distribution from higher-mass stars down to brown dwarfs. Along with other observational results in the literature, this provides further indications that stars and brown dwarfs may share a common formation mechanism, rather than being distinct populations.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/bfadd04903b52a6c14e765625a87f0e89f6828f6

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. B. Bowler
2. A. Mann
3. Michael C. Liu
4. E. Gaidos
5. E. Shkolnik
6. R. Doyon
7. M. Moe
8. Eric Mamajek

In Instrumentation

1. A. Mann
2. E. Gaidos
3. B. Bowler
4. Michael C. Liu
5. E. Shkolnik
6. E. Hilton
7. E. Kirby
8. S. Lépine

Citations in the corpus

• Multiplicity among Solar-type Stars (2017, background): “…techniques and efficient detectors have begun to correct for this bias (e.g., Potter et al. 2002; Pravdo et al. 2006; Ehrenreich et al. 2010; Janson et al. 2012; Jódar et al. 2013; Tokovinin 2013; Chini et al. 2014; Riddle et al. 2015; Rodriguez et al. 2015), and these efforts clearly begin…”
• BAYESIAN ANALYSIS TO IDENTIFY NEW STAR CANDIDATES IN NEARBY YOUNG STELLAR KINEMATIC GROUPS (2012, unknown): “2MASSJ01112542+1526214 AB (GJ 3076) : We propose this binary (ρ=0.41′′, M5V + M6V; Beuzit et al. 2004; Janson et al. 2012) as a highly probable member ofβPMG with a Pv=99.99% at ds=20±1 pc.”
• PLANETS AROUND LOW-MASS STARS (PALMS). IV. THE OUTER ARCHITECTURE OF M DWARF PLANETARY SYSTEMS (2014, methodology): “′′25 binary by Janson et al. (2012), who also confirmed the physical nature of the pair from two epochs of astrometry in 2008 and 2009.”
• The VAST Survey - III. The multiplicity of A-type stars within 75 pc (2013, background): “More recentstudies of M-dwarf multiplicity have not been included as comparison samples as these surveys do not have sensitivity to companions with separations& 200 au (Bergfors et al. 2010; Janson et al. 2012).”
• The Close Binary Fraction of Solar-type Stars Is Strongly Anticorrelated with Metallicity (2018, background): “Late K- and M-type binaries are weighted toward equal-mass companions (Dieterich et al. 2012; Janson et al. 2012; Duchêne & Kraus 2013).”
• CARMENES input catalogue of M dwarfs. I. Low-resolution spectroscopy with CAFOS (2015, unknown): “…et al. 2008; Cab09: Caballero 2009; Shk09: Shkolnik et al. 2009; Cab10: Caballero et al. 2010; Shk10: Shkolnik et al. 2010; LG11: Lépine & Gaidos 2011; Jan12: Janson et al. 2012; JE12: Jiménez-Esteban et al. 2012; RA12: Rojas-Ayala et al. 2012; Fri13: Frith et al. 2013; Lep13: Lépine et al.…”
• THE STELLAR INITIAL MASS FUNCTION OF ULTRA-FAINT DWARF GALAXIES: EVIDENCE FOR IMF VARIATIONS WITH GALACTIC ENVIRONMENT (2013, background): “In the solar neighborhood, the multiplicity of stars decreases with decreasing stellar mass (Kraus & Hillenbrand 2012), with more massive OBtype stars having binary fractions upwards of fbinary = 0.7 (Peter et al. 2012), down to M-stars with binary fractions between 0.2-0.3 (Janson et al. 2012).”
• Stellar Multiplicity (2013, background): “Data for solar-type stars (green diamonds), low-mass stars (orange triangles) and VLM objects (red plus signs) are from Raghavan et al. (2010), the RECONS survey and Janson et al. (2012a), and the VLM binary database, respectively.”
• The M-dwarfs in Multiples (MinMs) survey – I. Stellar multiplicity among low-mass stars within 15 pc (2015, background): “The incompleteness of the spectroscopic results underscores the need for a comprehensive c© 2015 RAS, MNRAS 000, 1–34 spectroscopic companion survey of nearby M-dwarfs, such as the CARMENES survey (Quirrenbach et al. 2010).”
• Trumpeting M dwarfs with CONCH-SHELL: a catalogue of nearby cool host-stars for habitable exoplanets and life (2014, background): “The AstraLux survey found 48 binaries out of 761 systems within this separation range.”
• HOW TO CONSTRAIN YOUR M DWARF: MEASURING EFFECTIVE TEMPERATURE, BOLOMETRIC LUMINOSITY, MASS, AND RADIUS (2015, background): “Most of our targets are close and have been studied extensively for companions (e.g., Janson et al. 2012, 2014; Ansdell et al. 2015), and hence the agreement between the estimated and observed binarity is not surprising.”