The HADES RV Programme with HARPS-N@TNG. III. Flux-flux and activity-rotation relationships of early-M dwarfs

TL;DR

This study investigates the relationships between stellar activity, rotation, and flux-flux correlations in early-M dwarfs, providing new insights into their chromospheric behavior and extending flux-flux analysis to lower activity levels.

Contribution

It offers a homogeneous analysis of 71 early-M dwarfs, confirming activity-rotation relationships and flux-flux correlations in this spectral range, and extends existing models to lower flux regimes.

Findings

Chromospheric emission strength is roughly constant in M0-M3 stars.

A moderate correlation between activity and rotation is suggested.

Young stars show higher emission levels and deviate from flux-flux relationships.

Abstract

(Abridged) Understanding stellar activity in M dwarfs is crucial for the physics of stellar atmospheres as well as for ongoing radial velocity exoplanet programmes. Despite the increasing interest in M dwarfs, our knowledge of the chromospheres of these stars is far from being complete. We aim to test whether the relations between activity, rotation, and stellar parameters and flux-flux relationships also hold for early-M dwarfs on the main-sequence. We analyse in an homogeneous and coherent way a well defined sample of 71 late-K/early-M dwarfs that are currently being observed in the framework of the HArps-n red Dwarf Exoplanet Survey (HADES). Rotational velocities are derived using the cross-correlation technique while emission flux excesses in the Ca II H & K and Balmer lines from Halpha up to Hepsilon are obtained by using the spectral subtraction technique. The relationships between the emission excesses and the stellar parameters are studied. Relations between pairs of fluxes of different chromospheric lines are also studied. We find that the strength of the chromospheric emission in the Ca II H & K and Balmer lines is roughly constant for stars in the M0-M3 spectral range. Our data suggest that a moderate but significant correlation between activity and rotation might be present as well as a hint of kinematically selected young stars showing higher levels of emission. We find our sample of M dwarfs to be complementary in terms of chromospheric and X-ray fluxes with those of the literature, extending the analysis of the flux-flux relationships to the very low flux domain. Our results agree with previous works suggesting that the activity-rotation-age relationship known to hold for solar-type stars also applies to early-M dwarfs. We also confirm previous findings that the field stars which deviate from the bulk of the empirical flux-flux relationships show evidence of youth.