The Solar Neighborhood. XLVI. Revealing New M Dwarf Binaries and their Orbital Architectures

TL;DR

This study uses two decades of astrometric data to identify and characterize M dwarf binary systems in the solar neighborhood, providing new orbital data and criteria for detecting unresolved multiples in Gaia DR2.

Contribution

It offers new and refined astrometric orbits for M dwarf binaries and establishes criteria for identifying unresolved multiple systems in Gaia DR2 data.

Findings

Nine high-quality astrometric orbits derived

Criteria for unresolved multiples in Gaia DR2 established

Comparison of RECONS and Gaia parallaxes for nearby stars

Abstract

We use 20 years of astrometric data from the RECONS program on the CTIO/SMARTS 0.9-m to provide new insight into multiple star systems in the solar neighborhood. We provide new and updated parallaxes for 210 systems and derive nine high-quality astrometric orbits with periods of 2.49 - 16.63 years. Using a total of 542 systems' parallaxes from RECONS, we compare systems within 25 parsecs to Gaia DR2 to define criteria for selecting unresolved astrometric multiples from the DR2 results. We find that three out of four unresolved multi-star red dwarf systems within 25 pc in DR2 have parallax_error $\geq 0.32$ mas, astrometric_gof_al $\geq 56$, astrometric_excess_noise_sig $\geq 108.0$, ruwe $\geq 2.0$, and parallaxes more than $\sim$10% different than the long-term RECONS results. These criteria have broad applications to any work targeting nearby stars, from studies seeking binary systems to efforts targeting single stars for planet searches.