Related papers: The Mass-Radius(-Rotation?) Relation for Low-Mass …
Many pulsating low-mass white-dwarf stars have been detected in the last years in the field of our Galaxy. Given that some of them exhibit multiperiodic variation of brightness, it is possible to probe their interiors through…
In the course of conducting a deep (14.5 ~< r ~< 23), 20 night survey for transiting planets in the rich ~550 Myr old open cluster M37 we have measured the rotation periods of 575 stars which lie near the cluster main sequence, with masses…
We study the masses and radii of 65 exoplanets smaller than 4 Earth radii with orbital periods shorter than 100 days. We calculate the weighted mean densities of planets in bins of 0.5 Earth radii and identify a density maximum of 7.6 g/cc…
Low-mass stars exhibit substantial pre-main sequence evolution during the first ~100 Myrs of their lives. Thus, young M-type stars are prime targets for isochronal dating, especially in young moving groups (YMGs), which contain large…
The new discovered short-period close binary star, XY LMi, was monitored photometrically since 2006. It is shown that the light curves are typical EW-type and show complete eclipses with an eclipse duration of about 80 minutes. By analyzing…
We examine a number of evolutionary scenarios for the recently discovered class of accretion-powered millisecond X-ray pulsars in ultracompact binaries, including XTE J0929-314 and XTE J1751-305, with orbital periods of 43.6 and 42.4…
M dwarfs remain active over longer timescales than their Sunlike counterparts, with potentially devastating implications for the atmospheres of their planets. However, the age at which fully-convective M dwarfs transition from active and…
Precise space-based photometry from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite results in a huge number of exoplanetary candidates. However, the masses of these objects are unknown and must be determined by ground-based spectroscopic…
The white dwarf mass-radius relationship is fundamental to modern astrophysics. It is central to routine estimation of DA white dwarf masses derived from spectroscopic temperatures and gravities. It is also the basis for observational…
A long standing and unverified prediction of binary star evolution theory is the existence of a population of white dwarfs accreting from sub-stellar donor stars. Such systems ought to be common, but the difficulty of finding them, combined…
The photometric and spectroscopic investigations of ten contact binaries were presented for the first time. It is discovered that the mass ratios of all the ten targets are smaller than 0.15, they are extremely low mass ratio contact…
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…
We report results from a search for Galactic high-mass eclipsing binaries. The photometric monitoring campaign was performed in Sloan $r$ and $i$ with the robotic twin refractor RoBoTT at the Universit\"atssternwarte Bochum in Chile and…
We present the detection and follow-up observations of planetary candidates around low-mass stars observed by the K2 mission. Based on light-curve analysis, adaptive-optics imaging, and optical spectroscopy at low and high resolution…
Long-term photometric measurements in a sample of ultrashort-period (P~0.5 days or less) single and binary stars of different interior structures are analysed. A loose correlation exists between the rotational rate and cycle lengths of…
The formation of hot subdwarf stars (sdBs), which are core helium-burning stars located on the extended horizontal branch, is still not understood. Many of the known hot subdwarf stars reside in close binary systems with short orbital…
Tight Triple Systems have stars in a hierarchical configuration with a third star orbiting the inner binary with a period of fewer than 1000 days. Such systems are important for understanding the formation and evolution of stars in multiple…
Low mass white dwarfs are the remnants of disrupted red giant stars in binary millisecond pulsars and other exotic binary star systems. Some low mass white dwarfs cool rapidly, while others stay bright for millions of years due to stable…
We have obtained adaptive optics images and accurate radial velocities for 7 very low mass systems, in the course of a long term effort to determine accurate masses for very low mass stars (M<0.6 Solar Mass). We use the new data, together…
[ABRIDGED] We present the results of a 3 year monitoring program of a sample of very low mass (VLM) field binaries using both astrometric and spectroscopic data obtained in conjunction with the laser guide star adaptive optics system on the…