11:15 AM
12:30 PM
Title: One Big Picture of M Dwarf Binary Orbits
Abstract: The most numerous stars in our neighborhood -- the M dwarfs -- are also the faintest, leaving several open challenges in observing them uniformly and determining their fundamental properties. We know now that 27% of M dwarfs are in systems of two or more stars; with this in mind, we are conducting a survey of how these binary systems behave dynamically. Our goal is to establish the distributions of orbital parameters for M dwarf companions with periods up to 30 years, forming one picture that encompasses the regimes of several observing techniques. To fill this wide parameter space, we are using: (1) astrometry from the 23-year REsearch Consortium On Nearby Stars (RECONS) program at CTIO, (2) speckle interferometry from SOAR HRCam+SAM at CTIO, and (3) additional imaging and spectroscopic orbits from the literature. I will discuss these large observing campaigns, the preliminary results we are seeing for these binary systems' orbit shapes and sizes, and some specific challenges we are facing to determine decades-long orbits for our sample.
Host: Jessica Libby-Roberts
Seminar held in 538 Davey or please email CEHW-SEMINAR-QUESTIONS@lists.psu.edu to attend virtually.