First radius measurements of very low mass stars with the VLTI

By Damien Ségransan, Pierre Kervella, T. Forveille, D. Queloz. 2002

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We present 4 very low mass stars radii measured with the VLTI using the 2.2m VINCI test instrument. The observations were carried out during the commissioning of the 104-meter-baseline with two 8-meter-telescopes. We measure angular diameters of 0.7-1.5 mas with accuracies of 0.04-0.11 mas, and for spectral type ranging from M0V to M5.5V. We determine an empirical mass-radius relation for M dwarfs based on all available radius measurements. The observed relation agrees well with theoretical models at the present accuracy level, with possible discrepancy around 0.5-0.8 M that needs to be confirmed. In the near future, dozens of M dwarfs radii will be measured with 0.1-1% accuracy, with the VLTI, thanks to the improvements expected from the near infrared instrument AMBER. This will bring strong observational constraints on both atmosphere and interior physics.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Education, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e7f70b3490fb399ca81c3c79887a1190a386543b

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Citations in the corpus

SearchCal: a Virtual Observatory tool for searching calibrators in optical long-baseline interferometry II. The faint-object case (2006, methodology): “…(i) the stellar diameter (from interferometric measurements, lunar occultation and eclipsing binaries) from Barnes et al. (1978), Andersen (1991), Ségransan et al. (2003), and Mozurkewich et al. (2003) and (ii) BV RIJHK photometry (from Ducati 2002 and Gezari et al. 1999 catalogs) for a…”
STELLAR DIAMETERS AND TEMPERATURES. II. MAIN-SEQUENCE K- AND M-STARS (2012, background): “…10 published papers that present interferometrically determined radii of K- and M-dwarf stars with precision to better than 5%: Lane et al. (2001), Ségransan et al. (2003), Berger et al. (2006), di Folco et al. (2007), Kervella & Fouqué (2008), Boyajian et al. (2008), van Belle & von Braun…”
Evolution of low-mass star and brown dwarf eclipsing binaries (2007, result): “Although observations of this relationship agree well with the theoretical predictions in a large number of cases (Ségransan et al. 2003; Chabrier et al. 2005), the radius determinations of eclipsing binaries (EBs) depart significantly (∼10-15”
The Habitability of Planets Orbiting M-dwarf Stars (2016, methodology): “For M dwarfs near enough to have their diameters directly measured via interferometry, we have direct access to radius and temperature (Lane et al., 2001; Ségransan et al., 2003; Berger et al., 2006; Boyajian et al., 2012; van Belle & von Braun, 2009; von Braun et al., 2011, 2012).”
Galactic Stellar and Substellar Initial Mass Function (2003, methodology): “Using the VLTI, Ségransan et al. (2003a) obtained accurate radius measurements for some of the aforementioned very-low-mass objects.”
HOW TO CONSTRAIN YOUR M DWARF: MEASURING EFFECTIVE TEMPERATURE, BOLOMETRIC LUMINOSITY, MASS, AND RADIUS (2015, methodology): “Interferometric Teff and θ Twenty-nine stars in our sample have interferometric radii in Lane et al. (2001), Ségransan et al. (2003), Berger et al. (2006), Kervella et al. (2008), Demory et al. (2009), von Braun et al. (2011, 2012, 2014), Boyajian et al. (2012b), or T. S. Boyajian et al. (2015, in…”
Metallicity of M dwarfs - I. A photometric calibration and the impact on the mass-luminosity relation at the bottom of the main sequence (2005, methodology): “While less direct than the Ségransan et al. (2003) measurements, this procedure rests on relations which that paper validates, and that in our view is currently preferable to determining those parameters from the spectrum.”
The spinning-top Be star Achernar from VLTI-VINCI (2003, methodology): “LUAN is supported by UNSA and CNRS. Observations with the VLTI became possible thanks to the VLTI team.”
AN EMPIRICAL CALIBRATION TO ESTIMATE COOL DWARF FUNDAMENTAL PARAMETERS FROM H-BAND SPECTRA (2014, background): “The literature sources for measurements are: Segransan et al. (2003); Boyajian et al. (2008); Demory et al. (2009); Boyajian et al. (2012) and von Braun et al. (2012).”
Masses and Radii of Low-Mass Stars: Theory Versus Observations (2005, unknown): “From those measurements and trigonometric distances, determinations of stellar radii can be carried out (Lane et al. 2001; Ségransan et al. 2003).”
CHARACTERIZING THE COOL KOIs. III. KOI 961: A SMALL STAR WITH LARGE PROPER MOTION AND THREE SMALL PLANETS (2012, result): “Ségransan et al. (2003) recalculated the radius using a different set of limb-darkening coefficients, and reported a radius of 0.196 ± 0.008 R⊙ for Barnard’s Star, consistent with Lane et al. (2001) to within the quoted uncertainty.”
The diameters of $\alpha$ Centauri A and B - A comparison of the asteroseismic and VINCI/VLTI views (2003, methodology): “As a remark, the angular diameter of Proxima has also been measured recently for the first time (θLD = 1.02 ± 0.08 mas) using two 8-meters Unit Telescopes and the VINCI instrument (Ségransan et al. 2003).”
The Galactic Disk Mass Function: Reconciliation of the Hubble Space Telescope and Nearby Determinations (2003, methodology): “The theoretical M dwarf radii of B98 alsom ∼ 0.2–0.3 agree within 1% or less for with the radius mea-m ≤ 0.5 M, surements obtained recently with the Very Large Telescope Interferometer by Se´gransan et al. (2003a).”
On the Correlation between the Magnetic Activity Levels, Metallicities, and Radii of Low-Mass Stars (2007, methodology): “Berger et al. (2006), Ségransan et al. (2003), and Lane et al. (2001) have derived the masses of the stars in their interferometric studies using the empirical K-band mass-luminosity relation from Delfosse et al. (2000) and the mass-MK relation by Henry & McCarthy (1993).”
ε Indi Ba,Bb: The nearest binary brown dwarf (2003, background): “Direct measurements of the radius ofε Indi Ba through long-baseline interferometry may help solve this dilemma: at 3.626 pc, 0.085R subtends ∼0.25 milliarcsec, challenging but perhaps not impossible (cf. Ségransan et al. 2003).”
M dwarfs: effective temperatures, radii and metallicities (2008, methodology): “Long–baseline interferometry has recently provided angular diameters measurements for an handful of nearby M dwarfs which can be used to test the accuracy of our effective temperature and bolometric luminosity scale (Ségransan et al. 2003; Berger et al. 2006).”