First eROSITA study of nearby M dwarfs and the rotation-activity relation in combination with TESS

TL;DR

This study uses eROSITA and TESS data to analyze X-ray activity, rotation, and coronal properties of nearby M dwarfs, revealing their activity dependence on stellar mass and rotation, and highlighting the importance of X-ray spectroscopy.

Contribution

First comprehensive analysis combining eROSITA and TESS data to study X-ray emission, rotation, and coronal temperatures of nearby M dwarfs, expanding understanding of their magnetic activity.

Findings

65% of X-ray detected M dwarfs have coronal temperatures around 0.5 keV.

Evidence of X-ray flares and long-term variability in M dwarfs.

Mass dependence of X-ray luminosity and activity levels in M dwarfs.

Abstract

We present the first study of nearby M dwarfs with the ROentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Array (eROSITA) on board the Russian Spektrum-Roentgen-Gamma mission (SRG). To this end we extracted the Gaia DR2 data for the ~9000 nearby M dwarfs in the superblink proper motion catalog and calculated their stellar parameters from empirical relations with optical-IR colors. We cross-matched this catalog with the eROSITA Final Equatorial Depth Survey (eFEDS) and the first eROSITA all-sky survey (eRASS1). Our sample consists of 704 stars (SpT = K5-M7). This unprecedented data base for X-ray emitting M dwarfs allowed to quantitatively constrain the mass dependence of the X-ray luminosity, and to determine the change in the activity level with respect to pre-main-sequence stars. We also combined these data with the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) observations that are available for 501 of 704 X-ray detected M dwarfs and determined the rotation period for 180 of them. With the joint eROSITA-TESS sample, and combining it with our historical X-ray and rotation data for M dwarfs, we examined the mass dependence in the saturated regime of the rotation-activity relation. A first comparison of eROSITA hardness ratios and spectra shows that 65% of our X-ray detected M dwarfs have coronal temperatures of $\sim 0.5$ keV. We investigated their long-term X-ray variability by comparing the eRASS1 and ROSAT all-sky survey (RASS) measurements. Evidence for X-ray flares is found in various parts of our analysis: directly from inspection of the eFEDS light curves, in the relation between RASS and eRASS1 X-ray luminosities, and in stars displaying X-ray emission hotter than the bulk of the sample according to the hardness ratios. Finally, we point out the need of X-ray spectroscopy for more M dwarfs to study the coronal temperature-luminosity relation, not well constrained by our eFEDS results.