Activity and Rotation of Nearby Field M Dwarfs in the TESS Southern Continuous Viewing Zone

Abstract

The evolution of magnetism in late-type dwarfs remains murky, as we can only weakly predict levels of activity for M dwarfs of a given mass and age. We report results from our spectroscopic survey of M dwarfs in the Southern Continuous Viewing Zone (CVZ) of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). As the TESS CVZs overlap with those of the James Webb Space Telescope, our targets constitute a legacy sample for studies of nearby M dwarfs. For 122 stars, we obtained at least one $R\approx 2000$ optical spectrum with which we measure chromospheric $\mathrm{H}\alpha$ emission, a proxy for magnetic field strength. The fraction of active stars is consistent with what is expected for field M dwarfs; as in previous studies, we find that late-type M dwarfs remain active for longer than their early type counterparts. While the TESS light curves for $\approx$20% of our targets show modulations consistent with rotation, TESS systematics are not well enough understood for confident measurements of rotation periods ($P_{\mathrm{rot}}$) longer than half the length of an observing sector. We report periods for 12 stars for which we measure $P_{\mathrm{rot}} {\lower0.8ex\hbox{$\buildrel <\over\sim$}}$ 15 d or find confirmation for the TESS-derived $P_{\mathrm{rot}}$ in the literature. Our sample of 21 $P_{\mathrm{rot}}$, which includes periods from the literature, is consistent with our targets being spun-down field stars. Finally, we examine the $\mathrm{H}\alpha$-to-bolometric luminosity distribution for our sample. Two stars are rotating fast enough to be magnetically saturated, but are not, hinting at the possibility that fast rotators may appear inactive in $\mathrm{H}\alpha$.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in AJ, 17 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables

References in corpus (57)

• Astropy: A Community Python Package for Astronomy
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Technical Summary
• Binary companions of evolved stars in APOGEE DR14: Search method and catalog of ~5,000 companions
• The Zwicky Transient Facility: System Overview, Performance, and First Results
• A new extensive library of PHOENIX stellar atmospheres and synthetic spectra
• Estimating distances from parallaxes. V: Geometric and photogeometric distances to 1.47 billion stars in Gaia Early Data Release 3
• The generalised Lomb-Scargle periodogram. A new formalism for the floating-mean and Keplerian periodograms
• Disk Frequencies and Lifetimes in Young Clusters
• Seven temperate terrestrial planets around the nearby ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1
• Understanding the Lomb-Scargle Periodogram
• The Revised TESS Input Catalog and Candidate Target List
• The stellar activity-rotation relationship and the evolution of stellar dynamos
• Rotation and Activity in Mid-M to L Dwarfs
• Unresolved stellar companions with Gaia DR2 astrometry
• The SRG X-ray orbital observatory, its telescopes and first scientific results
• The H$\alpha$ emission of nearby M dwarfs and its relation to stellar rotation
• How to Constrain Your M dwarf II: the mass-luminosity-metallicity relation from 0.075 to 0.70$M_{\odot }$
• Spectroscopic Properties of Cool Stars in the SDSS: An Analysis of Magnetic Activity and a Search for Subdwarfs
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 Spectroscopic M Dwarf Catalog I: Data
• The stellar rotation--activity relationship in fully convective M dwarfs
• The Impact of Stellar Multiplicity on Planetary Systems, I.: The Ruinous Influence of Close Binary Companions
• A catalogue of rotation and activity in early-M stars
• Magnetic activity in the HARPS M-dwarf sample. The rotation-activity relationship for very low-mass stars through R'HK
• Transit Detection in the MEarth Survey of Nearby M Dwarfs: Bridging the Clean-First, Search-Later Divide
• Frequent flaring in the TRAPPIST-1 system - unsuited for life?
• TESS Discovery of an ultra-short-period planet around the nearby M dwarf LHS 3844
• K2 rotation periods for low-mass Hyads and a quantitative comparison of the distribution of slow rotators in the Hyades and Praesepe
• The Factory and The Beehive II. Activity and Rotation in Praesepe and the Hyades
• A Fast Algorithm for Cosmic Rays Removal from Single Images
• Poking the Beehive From Space: K2 Rotation Periods For Praesepe
• A Correlation Between Pre-Main Sequence Stellar Rotation Rates and IRAC Excesses in Orion
• BOSS Ultracool Dwarfs I: Colors and Magnetic Activity of M and L dwarfs
• Kepler-445, Kepler-446 and the Occurrence of Compact Multiples Orbiting Mid-M Dwarf Stars
• The Threatening Environment of the TRAPPIST-1 Planets
• Measuring the Recoverability of Close Binaries in Gaia DR2 with the Robo-AO Kepler Survey
• Stellar rotation periods from K2 Campaigns 0-18 -- Evidence for rotation period bimodality and simultaneous variability decrease
• The High-Energy Radiation Environment Around a 10 Gyr M Dwarf: Habitable at Last?
• A New Look at an Old Cluster: The Membership, Rotation, and Magnetic Activity of Low-Mass Stars in the 1.3-Gyr-Old Open Cluster NGC 752
• The dependence of stellar mass and angular momentum losses on latitude and on active region and dipolar magnetic fields
• The Chamaeleon II low-mass star-forming region: radial velocities, elemental abundances, and accretion properties
• Calibration of the Halpha Age-Activity relation for M dwarfs
• The Effects of Close Companions (and Rotation) on the Magnetic Activity of M Dwarfs
• A First Look at Rotation in Inactive Late-Type M Dwarfs
• The Effect of Binarity on Stellar Rotation - Beyond the Reach of Tides
• Recovery of TESS Stellar Rotation Periods Using Deep Learning
• EvryFlare II: Rotation Periods of the Cool Flare Stars in TESS Across Half the Southern Sky
• Sensitivity of Transit Searches to Habitable Planets
• Chromospheric activity among fast rotating M-dwarfs in the open cluster NGC 2516
• Building the Evryscope: Hardware Design and Performance
• Three K2 Campaigns Yield Rotation Periods for 1013 Stars in Praesepe
• The beta Pictoris association low-mass members: membership assessment, rotation period distribution, and dependence on multiplicity
• Evryscope and K2 Constraints on TRAPPIST-1 Superflare Occurrence and Planetary Habitability
• 2MASS J15460752-6258042: a mid-M dwarf hosting a prolonged accretion disc
• Linking Stellar Coronal Activity and Rotation at 500 Myr: A Deep Chandra Observation of M37
• Activity and Kinematics of White Dwarf-M Dwarf Binaries from the SUPERBLINK Proper Motion Survey
• Rotation periods of TESS Objects of Interest from the Magellan-TESS Survey with multiband photometry from Evryscope and TESS
• H$\alpha$ Emission From Active Equal-mass, Wide M Dwarf Binaries