A path towards understanding the rotation-activity relation of M dwarfs with K2 mission, X-ray and UV data
Date
01/12/2016Keywords
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Abstract
We study the relation between stellar rotation and magnetic activity fora sample of 134 bright, nearby M dwarfs observed in the Kepler Two-Wheel (K2) mission during campaigns C0-C4. The K2 light curves yield photometrically derived rotation periods for 97 stars (79 of which without previous period measurement), as well as various measures for activity related to cool spots and flares. We find a clear difference between fast and slow rotators with a dividing line at a period of ~10 d at which the activity level changes abruptly. All photometric diagnostics of activity (spot cycle amplitude, flare peak amplitude and residual variability after subtraction of spot and flare variations) display the same dichotomy, pointing to a quick transition between a high-activity mode for fast rotators and a low-activity mode for slow rotators. This unexplained behavior is reminiscent of a dynamo mode-change seen in numerical simulations that separates a dipolar from a multipolar regime. A substantial number of the fast rotators a revisual binaries. A tentative explanation is accelerated disc evolution in binaries leading to higher initial rotation rates on the main sequence and associated longer spin-down and activity lifetimes. We combine the K2 rotation periods with archival X-ray and UV data. X-ray, FUV and NUV detections are found for 26, 41, and 11 stars from our sample, respectively. Separating the fast from the slow rotators, we determine for the first time the X-ray saturation level separately for early- and for mid-M stars.
Citation
Stelzer , B , Damasso , M , Scholz , A & Matt , S P 2016 , ' A path towards understanding the rotation-activity relation of M dwarfs with K2 mission, X-ray and UV data ' , Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society , vol. 463 , no. 2 , pp. 1844-1864 . https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stw1936
Publication
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0035-8711Type
Journal article
Rights
© 2016 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. This work is made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the final published version of the work, which was originally published at: https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stw1936
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