scholarly journals On the mass distribution of stars in the solar neighborhood

2006 ◽  
pp. 17-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Ninkovic ◽  
V. Trajkovska

The present authors analyze samples consisting of Hipparcos stars. Based on the corresponding HR diagrams they estimate masses of Main-Sequence stars from their visual magnitudes. They find that already beyond the heliocentric radius of 10 pc the effects of observational selection against K and M dwarfs become rather strong. For this reason the authors are inclined to think that the results concerning this heliocentric sphere appear as realistic, i. e. the fraction of low-mass stars (under half solar mass) is about 50% and, as a consequence, the mean star mass should be about 0.6 solar masses and Agekyan's factor about 1.2. That stars with masses higher than 5 M? are very rare is confirmed also from the data concerning more remote stars. It seems that white dwarfs near the Sun are not too frequent so that their presence cannot affect the main results of the present work significantly.

1999 ◽  
Vol 170 ◽  
pp. 121-130
Author(s):  
G. W. Marcy ◽  
R. Paul Butler ◽  
D. A. Fischer

AbstractWe have measured the radial velocities of 540 G and K main sequence stars with a precision of 3−10 ms−1 using the Lick and Keck échelle spectrometers. We had detected 6 companions that have m sin i < 7 MJup. We announce here the discovery of a new planet around Gliese 876, found in our Doppler measurements from both Lick and Keck. This is the first planet found around an M dwarf, which indicates that planets occur around low-mass stars, in addition to solar-type stars. We combine our entire stellar sample with that of Mayor et al. to derive general properties of giant planets within a few AU of these stars. Less than 1% of G and K main sequence stars harbor brown dwarf companions with masses between 5 and 70 MJup. Including Gliese 876b, 8 companions exhibit m sin i < 5 MJup which constitute the best planet candidates to date. Apparently, 4% of stars have planetary companions within the range m sin i = 0.5 to 5 MJup. Planets are distinguished from brown dwarfs by the discontinuous jump in the mass function at 5 MJup. About 2/3 of the planets orbit within just 0.3 AU due in part to their favorable detectability, but also possibly due to a real “pile up” of planets near the star. Inward orbital migration after formation may explain this, but the mechanism to stop the migration remains unclear. Five of eight planets have orbital eccentricities greater than that of our Jupiter, eJup = 0.048, and tidal circularization may explain most of the circular orbits. Thus, eccentric orbits are common and may arise from gravitational interactions with other planets, stars, or the protoplanetary disk. The planet-bearing stars are systematically metal-rich, as is the Sun, compared to the solar neighborhood.


1982 ◽  
Vol 69 ◽  
pp. 105-108
Author(s):  
Peter Vanýsek

AbstractThe space distribution of some small dense clouds with point-like IR sources, resembles the clustering of young OB stars. It can be assumed that such objects contain heavy obscured high-luminosity stars on the ZAMS. From the comparison of infrared and radio data it follows that in typical cases, only one B star is the source of the radiation of the cloud. The total mass of the cloud is of the order of one solar mass. If the individual fragments of the cloud are gravitationally unstable, then in the later stage of the evolution only low-mass stars are formed. One can therefore expect that young OB stars are most frequently accompanied by low-mass pre-Main Sequence stars.


1994 ◽  
Vol 146 ◽  
pp. 61-70
Author(s):  
James Liebert

The term dwarf stars identifies objects of small radius in the Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R) Diagram, but encompasses more than one phase of stellar evolution. The M dwarfs (type dM) populate the main sequence at the low mass end; these are the coolest core hydrogen-burning stars. They belong generally to the Galactic disk, or Population I, have relatively small space motions with respect to the Sun, and have similar metallicities to the Sun (although perhaps only within a factor of several). In particular, this means that the abundance of oxygen is always greater than that of carbon. The M subdwarfs (sdM) are the Population II counterparts, showing low metallicities and high space motions. Because they have smaller radii, they define a main sequence at lower luminosity than the M dwarfs for a given temperature. Hence the term subdwarf.


1959 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 39-40
Author(s):  
O. C. Wilson

Modern photoelectric techniques yield magnitudes and colors of stars with accuracies of the order of a few thousandths and a few hundredths of a magnitude respectively. Hence for star clusters it is possible to derive highly accurate color-magnitude arrays since all of the members of a cluster may be considered to be at the same distance from the observer. It is much more difficult to do this for the nearby stars where all of the objects concerned are at different, and often poorly determined, distances. If one depends upon trigonometric parallaxes, the bulk of the reliable individual values will refer to main sequence stars, and while the mean luminosities of brighter stars are given reasonably well by this method, the scatter introduced into a color-magnitude array by using individual trigonometrically determined luminosities could obscure important features. Somewhat similar objections could be raised against the use of the usual spectroscopic parallaxes which also should be quite good for the main sequence but undoubtedly exhibit appreciable scatter for some, at least, of the brighter stars.


2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (S258) ◽  
pp. 81-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynne A. Hillenbrand

AbstractThis overview summarizes the age dating methods available for young sub-solar mass stars. Pre-main sequence age diagnostics include the Hertzsprung-Russell (HR) diagram, spectroscopic surface gravity indicators, and lithium depletion; asteroseismology is also showing recent promise. Near and beyond the zero-age main sequence, rotation period or vsiniand activity (coronal and chromospheric) diagnostics along with lithium depletion serve as age proxies. Other authors in this volume present more detail in each of the aforementioned areas. Herein, I focus on pre-main sequence HR diagrams and address the questions: Do empirical young cluster isochrones match theoretical isochrones? Do isochrones predict stellar ages consistent with those derived via other independent techniques? Do the observed apparent luminosity spreads at constant effective temperature correspond to true age spreads? While definitive answers to these questions are not provided, some methods of progression are outlined.


2003 ◽  
Vol 211 ◽  
pp. 257-260
Author(s):  
Nick Siegler ◽  
Laird M. Close ◽  
Eric E. Mamajek ◽  
Melanie Freed

We have used the adaptive optics system Hōkūpa'a at Gemini North to search for companions from a flux-limited (Ks > 12) survey of 30 nearby M6.0–M7.5 dwarfs. Our observations, which are sensitive to companions with separations > 0.1″ (~ 2.8 AU), detect 3 new binary systems. This implies an overall binary fraction of 9±4% for M6.0–M7.5 binaries. This binary frequency is somewhat less than the 19±7% measured for late M stars and ~ 20% for L stars, but is still statistically consistent. However, the result is significantly lower than the binary fractions observed amongst solar mass main sequence stars (~60%) and early M stars (~35%).


2020 ◽  
Vol 72 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mai Yamashita ◽  
Yoichi Itoh ◽  
Yuhei Takagi

Abstract We investigated the chromospheric activity of 60 pre-main-sequence (PMS) stars in four molecular clouds and five moving groups. It is considered that strong chromospheric activity is driven by the dynamo processes generated by stellar rotation. In contrast, several researchers have pointed out that the chromospheres of PMS stars are activated by mass accretion from their protoplanetary disks. In this study, the Ca ii infrared triplet (IRT) emission lines were investigated utilizing medium- and high-resolution spectroscopy. The observations were conducted with Nayuta/MALLS and Subaru/HDS. Additionally, archive data obtained by Keck/HIRES, VLT/UVES, and VLT/X-Shooter were used. The small ratios of the equivalent widths indicate that Ca ii IRT emission lines arise primarily in dense chromospheric regions. Seven PMS stars show broad emission lines. Among them, four PMS stars have more than one order of magnitude brighter emission line fluxes compared to the low-mass stars in young open clusters. The four PMS stars have a high mass accretion rate, which indicates that the broad and strong emission results from a large mass accretion. However, most PMS stars exhibit narrow emission lines. No significant correlation was found between the accretion rate and flux of the emission line. The ratios of the surface flux of the Ca ii IRT lines to the stellar bolometric luminosity, $R^{\prime }_{\rm IRT}$, of the PMS stars with narrow emission lines are as large as the largest $R^{\prime }_{\rm IRT}$ of the low-mass stars in the young open clusters. This result indicates that most PMS stars, even in the classical T Tauri star stage, have chromospheric activity similar to zero-age main-sequence stars.


2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (S243) ◽  
pp. 231-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jérôme Bouvier

AbstractStar-disk interaction is thought to drive the angular momentum evolution of young stars. In this review, I present the latest results obtained on the rotational properties of low mass and very low mass pre-main sequence stars. I discuss the evidence for extremely efficient angular momentum removal over the first few Myr of pre-main sequence evolution and describe recent results that support an accretion-driven braking mechanism. Angular momentum evolution models are presented and their implication for accretion disk lifetimes discussed.


1981 ◽  
Vol 59 ◽  
pp. 361-371
Author(s):  
R. Ebert ◽  
H. Zinnecker

AbstractIn this paper we present a fully hydrodynamical treatment of the stationary isothermal accretion problem onto a moving gravitating point mass. The derivation is purely analytical. We find that the accretion rate is more than a factor of 50 higher than the accretion rate derived from the partially non-hydrodynamical treatment by Hoyle and Lyttleton (1939) or Bondi and Hoyle (1944). This result may have some bearing on the evolutionary tracks of young pre-Main Sequence stars still embedded in their parent protocluster cloud. We discuss the work by Federova (1979) who investigated the pre-Main Sequence evolution of degenerate low mass ‘stars’ with strong accretion of protocluster cloud material. We suggest that the stars which lie below the Main Sequence in young clusters could strongly accrete matter at the pre-Main Sequence stage.


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