168 research outputs found
The \chi Factor: Determining the Strength of Activity in Low Mass Dwarfs
We describe a new, distance-independent method for calculating the magnetic
activity strength in low mass dwarfs, L_{H\alpha}/L_{bol}. Using a
well-observed sample of nearby stars and cool standards spanning spectral type
M0.5 to L0, we compute ``\chi'', the ratio between the continuum flux near
H-alpha and the bolometric flux, f_{\lambda6560}/f_{bol}. This ratio may be
multiplied by the measured equivalent width of the H-alpha emission line to
yield L_{H\alpha}/L_{bol}. We provide \chi values for all objects in our
sample, as well as fits to \chi as a function of color and average values by
spectral type. This method was used by West et al.(2004) to examine trends in
magnetic activity strength in low mass stars.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in PAS
The Ultraviolet Radiation Environment Around M dwarf Exoplanet Host Stars
The spectral and temporal behavior of exoplanet host stars is a critical
input to models of the chemistry and evolution of planetary atmospheres. At
present, little observational or theoretical basis exists for understanding the
ultraviolet spectra of M dwarfs, despite their critical importance to
predicting and interpreting the spectra of potentially habitable planets as
they are obtained in the coming decades. Using observations from the Hubble
Space Telescope, we present a study of the UV radiation fields around nearby M
dwarf planet hosts that covers both FUV and NUV wavelengths. The combined
FUV+NUV spectra are publically available in machine-readable format. We find
that all six exoplanet host stars in our sample (GJ 581, GJ 876, GJ 436, GJ
832, GJ 667C, and GJ 1214) exhibit some level of chromospheric and transition
region UV emission. No "UV quiet" M dwarfs are observed. The bright stellar
Ly-alpha emission lines are reconstructed, and we find that the Ly-alpha line
fluxes comprise ~37-75% of the total 1150-3100A flux from most M dwarfs; >
10^{3} times the solar value. The F(FUV)/F(NUV) flux ratio, a driver for
abiotic production of the suggested biomarkers O2 and O3, is shown to be ~0.5-3
for all M dwarfs in our sample, > 10^{3} times the solar ratio. For the four
stars with moderate signal-to-noise COS time-resolved spectra, we find UV
emission line variability with amplitudes of 50-500% on 10^{2} - 10^{3} s
timescales. Finally, we observe relatively bright H2 fluorescent emission from
four of the M dwarf exoplanetary systems (GJ 581, GJ 876, GJ 436, and GJ 832).
Additional modeling work is needed to differentiate between a stellar
photospheric or possible exoplanetary origin for the hot (T(H2) \approx
2000-4000 K) molecular gas observed in these objects.Comment: ApJ, accepted. 16 pages, 10 figures. On-line data at:
http://cos.colorado.edu/~kevinf/muscles.htm
White-light flares on cool stars in the Kepler Quarter 1 Data
We present the results of a search for white light flares on the ~23,000 cool
dwarfs in the Kepler Quarter 1 long cadence data. We have identified 373
flaring stars, some of which flare multiple times during the observation
period. We calculate relative flare energies, flare rates and durations, and
compare these with the quiescent photometric variability of our sample. We find
that M dwarfs tend to flare more frequently but for shorter durations than K
dwarfs, and that they emit more energy relative to their quiescent luminosity
in a given flare than K dwarfs. Stars that are more photometrically variable in
quiescence tend to emit relatively more energy during flares, but variability
is only weakly correlated with flare frequency. We estimate distances for our
sample of flare stars and find that the flaring fraction agrees well with other
observations of flare statistics for stars within 300 pc above the Galactic
Plane. These observations provide a more rounded view of stellar flares by
sampling stars that have not been pre-selected by their activity, and are
informative for understanding the influence of these flares on planetary
habitability.Comment: 42 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables; Accepted for publication in the
Astronomical Journa
Photometric Variability in Kepler Target Stars: The Sun Among Stars -- A First Look
The Kepler mission provides an exciting opportunity to study the lightcurves
of stars with unprecedented precision and continuity of coverage. This is the
first look at a large sample of stars with photometric data of a quality that
has heretofore been only available for our Sun. It provides the first
opportunity to compare the irradiance variations of our Sun to a large cohort
of stars ranging from vary similar to rather different stellar properties, at a
wide variety of ages. Although Kepler data is in an early phase of maturity,
and we only analyze the first month of coverage, it is sufficient to garner the
first meaningful measurements of our Sun's variability in the context of a
large cohort of main sequence stars in the solar neighborhood. We find that
nearly half of the full sample is more active than the active Sun, although
most of them are not more than twice as active. The active fraction is closer
to a third for the stars most similar to the Sun, and rises to well more than
half for stars cooler than mid K spectral types.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, accepted to ApJ Letter
The Whole is Greater than the Sum of the Parts: Optimizing the Joint Science Return from LSST, Euclid and WFIRST
The focus of this report is on the opportunities enabled by the combination
of LSST, Euclid and WFIRST, the optical surveys that will be an essential part
of the next decade's astronomy. The sum of these surveys has the potential to
be significantly greater than the contributions of the individual parts. As is
detailed in this report, the combination of these surveys should give us
multi-wavelength high-resolution images of galaxies and broadband data covering
much of the stellar energy spectrum. These stellar and galactic data have the
potential of yielding new insights into topics ranging from the formation
history of the Milky Way to the mass of the neutrino. However, enabling the
astronomy community to fully exploit this multi-instrument data set is a
challenging technical task: for much of the science, we will need to combine
the photometry across multiple wavelengths with varying spectral and spatial
resolution. We identify some of the key science enabled by the combined surveys
and the key technical challenges in achieving the synergies.Comment: Whitepaper developed at June 2014 U. Penn Workshop; 28 pages, 3
figure
Improved age constraints for the AB Dor quadruple system - The binary nature of AB Dor B
We present resolved NACO photometry of the close binary AB Dor B in H- and
Ks-band. AB Dor B is itself known to be a wide binary companion to AB Dor A,
which in turn has a very low-mass close companion named AB Dor C. These four
known components make up the young and dynamically interesting system AB Dor,
which will likely become a benchmark system for calibrating theoretical
pre-main sequence evolutionary mass tracks for low-mass stars. However, for
this purpose the actual age has to be known, and this subject has been a matter
of discussion in the recent scientific literature. We compare our resolved
photometry of AB Dor Ba and Bb with theoretical and empirical isochrones in
order to constrain the age of the system. This leads to an age estimate of
about 50 to 100 Myr. We discuss the implications of such an age range for the
case of AB Dor C, and compare with other results in the literature.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in A&
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