AN M DWARF COMPANION TO AN F-TYPE STAR IN A YOUNG MAIN-SEQUENCE BINARY

• Only a few well characterized very low-mass M dwarfs are known today. Our understanding of M dwarfs is vital as these are the most common stars in our solar neighborhood. We aim to characterize the properties of a rare F+dM stellar system for a better understanding of the low-mass end of the Hertzsprung-Russel diagram. We used photometric light curves and radial velocity follow-up measurements to study the binary. Spectroscopic analysis was used in combination with isochrone fitting to characterize the primary star. The primary star is an early F-type main-sequence star with a mass of (1.493 +/- 0.073) M-circle dot and a radius of (1.474 +/- 0.040) R-circle dot. The companion is an M dwarf with a mass of (0.188 +/- 0.014) M-circle dot and a radius of (0.234 +/- 0.009) R-circle dot. The orbital period is (1.35121 +/- 0.00001) days. The secondary star is among the lowest-mass M dwarfs known to date. The binary has not reached a 1: 1 spin-orbit synchronization. This indicates a young main-sequence binary with an age below similar to 250 Myr. The mass-radius relation of both components are in agreement with this finding.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik -- Astronomi, astrofysik och kosmologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences -- Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

stars: evolution

binaries: eclipsing

stars: low-mass

binaries: close

Publication and Content Type

art (subject category)

ref (subject category)