Rotation Velocities for M-dwarfs

TL;DR

This study provides new spectroscopic rotation velocities for 56 M dwarfs, revealing trends with temperature and stellar structure, and links rotation to age, aiding future exoplanet searches around these stars.

Contribution

It significantly increases the known v sin i measurements for mid M stars and analyzes their rotation distribution and its relation to stellar properties and age.

Findings

Rotation velocity peaks at low values (~3 km/s).

Rotation distribution changes from early to late M stars.

Active stars with Halpha emission may have higher radial-velocity noise.

Abstract

We present spectroscopic rotation velocities (v sin i) for 56 M dwarf stars using high resolution HET HRS red spectroscopy. In addition we have also determined photometric effective temperatures, masses and metallicities ([Fe/H]) for some stars observed here and in the literature where we could acquire accurate parallax measurements and relevant photometry. We have increased the number of known v sin is for mid M stars by around 80% and can confirm a weakly increasing rotation velocity with decreasing effective temperature. Our sample of v sin is peak at low velocities (~3 km/s). We find a change in the rotational velocity distribution between early M and late M stars, which is likely due to the changing field topology between partially and fully convective stars. There is also a possible further change in the rotational distribution towards the late M dwarfs where dust begins to play a role in the stellar atmospheres. We also link v sin i to age and show how it can be used to provide mid-M star age limits. When all literature velocities for M dwarfs are added to our sample there are 198 with v sin i less than or equal to 10 km/s and 124 in the mid-to-late M star regime (M3.0-M9.5) where measuring precision optical radial-velocities is difficult. In addition we also search the spectra for any significant Halpha emission or absorption. 43% were found to exhibit such emission and could represent young, active objects with high levels of radial-velocity noise. The tables presented here will aid any future M star planet search target selection to extract stars that will exhibit low radial-velocity jitter.