Magnetic effects and oversized M dwarfs in the young open cluster NGC 2516

TL;DR

This study investigates why low-mass M-dwarfs in the young cluster NGC 2516 appear larger than models predict, exploring magnetic inhibition and star spots as potential explanations for the observed oversized radii.

Contribution

It demonstrates that magnetic inhibition of convection, alone or combined with star spots, can explain the inflated radii of M-dwarfs in NGC 2516, challenging pure spot models.

Findings

Magnetic fields increase with decreasing stellar mass.

Pure star spot models are inconsistent with observations.

Magnetic inhibition models align with observed radii and colors.

Abstract

By combining rotation periods with spectroscopic determinations of projected rotation velocity, Jackson, Jeffries & Maxted (2009) have found that the mean radii for low-mass M-dwarfs in the young, open cluster NGC 2516 are larger than model predictions at a given absolute I magnitude or I - K color and also larger than measured radii of magnetically inactive M-dwarfs. The relative radius difference is correlated with magnitude, increasing from a few per cent at MI = 7 to greater than 50 per cent for the lowest luminosity stars in their sample at MI about 9.5. Jackson et al (2009) have suggested that a two-temperature star spot model is capable of explaining the observations, but their model requires spot coverage fractions of at least 50 per cent in rapidly rotating M-dwarfs. Here we examine these results in terms of stellar models that include the inhibiting effects of magnetic fields on convective energy transport, with and without the effects of star spots. We find that a pure spot model is inconsistent with the color - magnitude diagram. The observations of radii versus color and radii versus absolute magnitude in NGC 2516 are consistent with models which include only magnetic inhibition or a combination of magnetic inhibition and spots. At a given mass we find a large dispersion in the strength of the vertical component of the magnetic field in the stellar photosphere but the general trend is that the vertical field increases with decreasing mass from a few hundred Gauss at 0.65 Msun to 600 - 900 Gauss, depending on spot coverage, in the lowest mass stars in the sample at 0.25 Msun.