We present the results of a comprehensive assessment of companions to solartype stars. A sample of 454 stars, including the Sun, was selected from the Hipparcos catalog with π > 40 mas, σ π /π < 0.05, 0.5 ≤ B − V ≤ 1.0 (∼ F6-K3), and constrained by absolute magnitude and color to exclude evolved stars. These criteria are equivalent to selecting all dwarf and subdwarf stars within 25 pc with V -band flux between 0.1 and 10 times that of the Sun, giving us a physical basis for the term "solar-type". New observational aspects of this work include surveys for (1) very close companions with long-baseline interferometry at the Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) Array, (2) close companions with speckle interferometry, and (3) wide proper motion companions identified by blinking multi-epoch archival images. In addition, we include the results from extensive radial-velocity monitoring programs and evaluate companion information from various catalogs covering many different techniques. The results presented here include four new common proper motion companions discovered by blinking archival images. Additionally, the spectroscopic data searched reveal five new stellar companions. Our synthesis of results from many methods and sources results in a thorough evaluation of stellar and brown dwarf companions to nearby Sun-like stars.
We present interferometric angular diameter measurements of 21 low-mass, Kand M-dwarfs made with the CHARA Array. This sample is enhanced by adding a collection of radii measurements published in the literature to form a total data set of 33 K-M dwarfs with diameters measured to better than 5%. We use these data in combination with the Hipparcos parallax and new measurements of the star's bolometric flux to compute absolute luminosities, linear radii, and effective temperatures for the stars. We develop empirical relations for ∼K0 to M4 mainsequence stars that link the stellar temperature, radius, and luminosity to thebroad-band color index and stellar metallicity [Fe/H]. These relations are valid for metallicities ranging from [Fe/H] = −0.5 to +0.1 dex, and are accurate to ∼2%, ∼5%, and ∼4% for temperature, radius, and luminosity, respectively. Our results show that it is necessary to use metallicity dependent transformations in order to properly convert colors into stellar temperatures, radii, and luminosities. Alternatively, we find no sensitivity to metallicity on relations we construct to the global properties of a star omitting color information e.g., temperature-radius and temperatureluminosity. Thus, we are able to empirically quantify to what order the star's observed color index is impacted by the stellar iron abundance. In addition to the empirical relations, we also provide a representative look-up table via stellar spectral classifications using this collection of data. Robust examinations of single star temperatures and radii compared to evolutionary model predictions on the luminosity -temperature and luminosity -radius planes reveals that models overestimate the temperatures of stars with surface temperatures < 5000 K by ∼ 3%, and underestimate the radii of stars with radii < 0.7 R ⊙ by ∼ 5%. These conclusions additionally suggest that the models over account for the effects that the stellar metallicity may have on the astrophysical properties of an object. By comparing the interferometrically measured radii for the single star population to those of eclipsing binaries, we find that for a given mass, single and binary star radii are indistinguishable. However, we also find that for a given radius, the literature temperatures for binary stars are systematically lower compared to our interferometrically derived temperatures of single stars by ∼ 200 to 300 K. The nature of this offset is dependent on the validation of binary star temperatures; where bringing all measurements to a uniform and correctly calibrated temperature scale is needed to identify any influence stellar activity may have on the physical properties of a star. Lastly, we present a empirically determined HR diagram using fundamental properties presented here in combination with those in Boyajian et al. (2012) for a total of 74 nearby, main-sequence, A-to M-type stars, and define regions of habitability for the potential existence of sub-stellar mass companions in each system.
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