Speckle Interferometry of Red Dwarf Stars

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution speckle interferometry to observe 336 M dwarf stars, providing new measurements, orbits, and mass estimates, significantly advancing understanding of their binary systems.

Contribution

First high-resolution speckle measurements for multiple M dwarf systems, including new orbits and mass determinations, enhancing binary star characterization.

Findings

Measured 113 relative positions of 80 systems

Derived orbits for six systems, including two revised and four new

Estimated stellar masses for components of G 161-7

Abstract

We report high resolution optical speckle observations of 336 M dwarfs which result in 113 measurements of relative position of 80 systems and 256 other stars with no indications of duplicity. These are the first measurements for two of the systems. We also present the earliest measures of relative position for 17 others. We include orbits for six of the systems, two revised and four reported for the first time. For one of the systems with a new orbit, G 161-7, we determine masses of 0.156 +/- 0.011 and 0.1175 +/-0.0079 \msun for the A and B components, respectively. All six of these new calculated orbits have short periods between five and thirty-eight years and hold the promise of deriving accurate masses in the near future. For many other pairs we can establish their nature as physical or chance alignment depending on their relative motion. Of the 80 systems, 32 have calculated orbits, 25 others are physical pairs, 4 are optical pairs and 19 are currently unknown.