The Solar Neighborhood L: Spectroscopic Discovery of K Dwarfs Younger Than 1 Gyr and New Binaries within 30 pc

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution spectroscopy to identify young K dwarfs and new binary systems within 30 parsecs, providing spectral age indicators and characterizing stellar parameters relevant for astrophysics and exoplanet research.

Contribution

It introduces a spectroscopic method to determine ages and binary status of nearby K dwarfs, including the discovery of new binaries and young stars within 30 parsecs.

Findings

Two stars are younger than 700 Myr.

Three stars show signs of stellar activity indicating youth.

Two new spectroscopic binaries are reported for the first time.

Abstract

As part of a comprehensive effort to characterize the nearest stars, the CHIRON echelle spectrograph on the CTIO/SMARTS 1.5m telescope is being used to acquire high resolution (R = 80000) spectra of K dwarfs within 50 parsecs. This paper provides spectral details about 35 K dwarfs from five benchmark sets with estimated ages spanning 20 Myr -- 5.7 Gyr. Four spectral age and activity indicators are tested, three of which aligned with the estimated ages of the benchmark groups -- the Na I doublet (5889.95 $\r{A}$ and 5895.92 $\r{A}$), the H$\alpha$ line (6562.8 $\r{A}$), and the Li I resonance line (6707.8 $\r{A}$). The benchmark stars are then used to evaluate seven field K dwarfs exhibiting variable radial velocities for which initial CHIRON data did not show obvious companions. Two of these stars are estimated to be younger than 700 Myr, while one exhibits stellar activity unusual for older K dwarf field stars and is possibly young. The four remaining stars turn out to be spectroscopic binaries, two of which are being reported here for the first time with orbital periods found using CHIRON data. Spectral analysis of the combined sample of 42 benchmark and variable radial velocity stars indicates temperatures ranging from 3900--5300 K and metallicities from $-$0.4 $<$ [Fe/H] $<$ $+$0.2. We also determine $log g$ = 4.5--4.7 for main sequence K dwarfs. Ultimately, this study will target several thousand of the nearest K dwarfs, and provide results that will serve present and future studies of stellar astrophysics and exoplanet habitability.