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D.H. Berger (University of Michigan/CHARA), D.R. Gies, H.A. McAlister (Georgia State University), T.A. ten Brummelaar (The CHARA Array/Georgia State University), T.J. Henry (Georgia State University), J. Sturmann, L. Sturmann, N.H. Turner (The CHARA Array/Georgia State University), S.T. Ridgway (NOAO/NASA), J.P. Aufdenberg (NOAO), A.M. Mérand (LESIA)
We report the angular diameters of six M dwarfs ranging in spectral type from M1.0 V to M3.0 V measured with Georgia State University's CHARA Array, a long-baseline optical interferometer located at Mount Wilson Observatory. Observations were made with the longest baselines in the near infrared K'-band and yielded angular diameters less than one milliarcsecond. Using an iterative process combining parallaxes from the NStars program and photometrically-derived bolometric luminosities and masses, we calculated effective temperatures, surface gravities, and stellar radii. Our results are consistent with other empirical measurements of M-dwarf radii, but found that current models underestimate the true stellar radii by up to 15-20%. We suggest that theoretical models for low mass stars may be lacking an opacity source that alters the computed stellar radii.
Science operations at the Array are supported by the National Science Foundation through NSF Grant AST--0307562 and by Georgia State University through the College of Arts and Sciences and the Office of the Vice President for Research. Financial support for DHB was provided by the National Science Foundation through grant AST--0205297.
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The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: dhberger@umich.edu
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 37 #4
© 2005. The American Astronomical Soceity.