We present a study of the relationship between Galactic kinematics, flare rates, chromospheric activity, and rotation periods for a volume-complete, nearly all-sky sample of 219 single stars within 15 pc and with masses between 0.1 and 0.3
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Abstract M ⊙observed during the primary mission of TESS. We find all stars consistent with a common value ofα = 1.984 ± 0.019 for the exponent of the flare frequency distribution. Using our measured stellar radial velocities and Gaia astrometry, we determine GalacticUVW space motions. We find 78% of stars are members of the Galactic thin disk, 7% belong to the thick disk, and for the remaining 15% we cannot confidently assign membership to either component. If we assume star formation has been constant in the thin disk for the past 8 Gyr, then based on the fraction that we observe to be active, we estimate the average age at which these stars transition from the saturated to the unsaturated flaring regime to be 2.4 ± 0.3 Gyr. This is consistent with the ages that we assign from Galactic kinematics: we find that stars with rotation periodP rot< 10 days have an age of 2.0 ± 1.2 Gyr, stars with 10 days <P rot≤ 90 days have an age of 5.6 ± 2.7 Gyr, and stars withP rot> 90 days have an age of 12.9 ± 3.5 Gyr. We find that the average age of stars withP rot< 10 days increases with decreasing stellar mass from 0.6 ± 0.3 Gyr (0.2–0.3M ⊙) to 2.3 ± 1.3 Gyr (0.1–0.2M ⊙). -
Abstract We present a study of the variation timescales of the chromospheric activity indicator H
α on a sample of 13 fully convective, active mid-to-late M stars with masses between 0.1 and 0.3 solar masses. Our goal was to determine the dominant variability timescale and, by inference, a possible mechanism responsible for the variation. We gathered 10 or more high-resolution spectra each of 10 stars using the TRES spectrograph at times chosen to span all phases of stellar rotation, as determined from photometric data from the MEarth Observatories. All stars varied in their Hα emission. For nine of these stars, we found no correlation between Hα and rotational phase, indicating that constant emission from fixed magnetic structures, such as star spots and plage, are unlikely to be the dominant source of Hα emission variability. In contrast, one star, G 7–34, shows a clear relationship between Hα and stellar rotational phase. Intriguingly, we found that this star is a member of the AB Doradus moving group and hence has the young age of 149 Myr. High-cadence spectroscopic observations of three additional stars revealed that they are variable on timescales ranging from 20 to 45 minutes, which we posit may be due to flaring behavior. For one star, GJ 1111, simultaneous TESS photometry and spectroscopic monitoring show an increase in Hα emission with increased photometric brightness. We conclude that low-energy flares are able to produce variation in Hα on the timescales we observe and thus may be the dominant source of Hα variability on active fully convective M dwarfs.