Related papers: Lucky Imaging survey for southern M dwarf binaries
The aim of the project is to find the stars nearest to the Sun and to contribute to the completion of the stellar and substellar census of the solar neighbourhood. We identified a new late-M dwarf within 5 pc, looking for high proper motion…
The fundamental parameters of a low-mass star can potentially be determined from its photometry and astrometry. This is complicated by the fact that 10-20 percent of low-mass stars are predicted to be equal-mass binaries. These unresolved…
We report about an ongoing photometric and spectroscopic monitoring survey of about 250 O- and 540 B-type stars in the southern Milky Way with the aim to determine the fraction of close binary systems as a function of mass and to determine…
Low-mass stars belonging to the M spectral type are the most numerous stars in our Galaxy, amounting to about two-thirds in number, and are found at the bottom of the main sequence in the H-R diagram. %Multi-wavelength studies on…
Theoretical models of low-mass stars continue to be discrepant with observations when used to examine the mass-radius relationship and other physical parameters of individual stars. High-resolution spectroscopy that leads to dynamical…
We report the discovery of a single-lined spectroscopic binary with an Ultra Cool Dwarf (UCD) primary with a spectral type between M8 and L0.5. This system was discovered during the course of an ongoing survey to monitor L dwarfs for radial…
We report the discovery of a nearby M5.0V dwarf at 24.6 pc, SCR 1848-6855, that is orbited by an unusual companion causing an astrometric perturbation of more than 200 milli-arcseconds. This is by far the largest perturbation found to date…
We present the discovery of 15 extremely low mass (5 < log{g} < 7) white dwarf candidates, 9 of which are in ultra-compact double-degenerate binaries. Our targeted ELM Survey sample now includes 76 binaries. The sample has a lognormal…
Using Virtual Observatory tools, we cross-matched the Carlsberg Meridian 14 and the 2MASS Point Source catalogs to select candidate nearby bright M dwarfs distributed over ~ 25,000 deg^2. Here, we present reconnaissance low-resolution…
A survey of 30 nearby M6.0-M7.5 dwarfs with Ks<12 mag utilizing the Hokupa'a adaptive optics system at the Gemini North Telescope has discovered 3 new binary systems. All 3 systems have separations between 0.12-0.29 arcsec (3-10 AU) with…
We present a new catalog of 404 M giant candidates found in the UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS). The 2,400 deg$^2$ available in the UKIDSS Large Area Survey Data Release 8 resolve M giants through a volume four times larger than…
Despite the ubiquity of M dwarfs and their growing importance to studies of exoplanets, Galactic evolution, and stellar structure, methods for precisely measuring their fundamental stellar properties remain elusive. Existing techniques for…
AstraLux is the Lucky Imaging camera for the Calar Alto 2.2-m telescope and the 3.5-m NTT at La Silla. It allows nearly diffraction limited imaging in the SDSS i' and z' bands of objects as faint as i'=15.5mag with minimum technical effort.…
The formation of stars above about twenty solar masses and their apparently high multiplicity remain heavily debated subjects in astrophysics. We have performed a vast high-resolution radial velocity spectroscopic survey of about 250 O- and…
Some M-dwarfs around F-/G-type stars have been measured to be hotter and larger than predicted by stellar evolution models. Inconsistencies between observations and models need addressing with more mass, radius and luminosity measurements…
We analyze five years of PLANET photometry of microlensing events toward the Galactic bulge to search for the short-duration deviations from single lens light curves that are indicative of the presence of planetary companions to the primary…
The relativley large spread in the derived metallicities ([Fe/H]) of M dwarfs shows that various approaches have not yet converged to consistency. The presence of strong molecular features, and incomplete line lists for the corresponding…
As a part of our ongoing Volume-limited A-Star (VAST) adaptive optics survey, we have obtained observations of 26 binary systems with projected separations <100 AU, 13 of which have sufficient historical measurements to allow for refinement…
Observations made using TESS revealed a sample of low mass stars which show a periodic modulation on a period $<0.2$~d. Surprisingly many of these Ultra Fast Rotating (UFR) stars showed no evidence of flare activity which would be expected…
We present preliminary results from a coronagraphic survey of young nearby Sun-like stars using the Palomar and Keck adaptive optics systems. We have targeted 251 solar analogs (F5-K5) at 20-160 pc from the Sun, spanning the 3-3000 Myr age…