The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 Spectroscopic M Dwarf Catalog III: The Spatial Dependence of Magnetic Activity in the Galaxy
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California Institute of Technology
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Boston University
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Haverford College
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Pennsylvania State University
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University of California, San Diego
Abstract
We analyze the magnetic activity of 59,318 M dwarfs from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 7. This analysis explores the spatial distribution of M dwarf activity as a function of both vertical distance from the Galactic plane (Z) and planar distance from the Galactic center (R). We confirm the established trends of decreasing magnetic activity (as measured by Hα emission) with increasing distance from the mid-plane of the disk and find evidence for a trend in Galactocentric radius. We measure a non-zero radial gradient in the activity fraction in our analysis of stars with spectral types dM3 and dM4. The activity fraction increases with R and can be explained by a decreasing mean stellar age with increasing distance from the Galactic center.
Additional Information
© 2013 American Astronomical Society. Received 2012 October 18; accepted 2013 June 25; published 2013 July 30. J.S.P would like to thank the referee for strengthening the results of this work as well as Elisabeth R. Newton and Saurav Dhital for useful comments in the preparation of this work. J.S.P. acknowledges the Paul E. Gray fund in providing monetary support for the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program at MIT. J.S.P acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. (DGE-1144469). A.A.W acknowledges funding from NSF grant AST-1109273. AAW also acknowledges the support of the Research Corporation for Science Advancement's Cottrell Scholarship Funding for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and SDSS-II has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Participating Institutions, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Japanese Monbukagakusho, and the Max Planck Society, and the Higher Education Funding Council for England. The SDSS Web site is http://www.sdss.org/. The SDSS is managed by the Astrophysical Research Consortium (ARC) for the Participating Institutions. The Participating Institutions are the American Museum of Natural History, Astrophysical Institute Potsdam, University of Basel, University of Cambridge, Case Western Reserve University, The University of Chicago, Drexel University, Fermilab, the Institute for Advanced Study, the Japan Participation Group, The Johns Hopkins University, the Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics, the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, the Korean Scientist Group, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (LAMOST), Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy (MPIA), the Max-Planck-Institute for Astrophysics (MPA), New Mexico State University, Ohio State University, University of Pittsburgh, University of Portsmouth, Princeton University, the United States Naval Observatory, and the University of Washington.Attached Files
Published - 1538-3881_146_3_50.pdf
Submitted - 1306.6330.pdf
Files
1306.6330.pdf
Additional details
Identifiers
- Eprint ID
- 39237
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20130708-082109359
Related works
- Describes
- http://arxiv.org/abs/1306.6330 (URL)
Funding
- Paul E. Gray Endowed Fund for Undergraduate Research Opportunities
- NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
- DGE-1144469
- NSF
- AST-1109273
- Cottrell Scholar of Research Corporation
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Dates
- Created
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2013-08-12Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-09Created from EPrint's last_modified field