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Title:
Expanding SIM Parameter Space with SLoWPoKES
Authors:
West, Andrew A.; Dhital, S.; Stassun, K. G.; Pepper, J.
Affiliation:
AA(MIT Kavli Institute), AB(Vanderbilt University), AC(Vanderbilt University), AD(Vanderbilt University)
Publication:
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #213, #455.10; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.355
Publication Date:
01/2009
Origin:
AAS
Bibliographic Code:
2009AAS...21345510W

Abstract

We present results from the Sloan Low-mass Wide Pairs of Kinematic Equivalent Stars (SLoWPoKES) sample, the largest catalog of wide (? AU), low-mass (˜M0) binaries ever assembled. SLoWPoKES provides an important dataset for studying the activity, metallicity, angular momentum, and dynamical evolution of coeval pairs. In addition, it provides the community with a large sample of wide pairs for follow-up science. In particular, SLoWPoKES binaries fall in a magnitude range that is easily amenable to the Space Interferometry Mission (SIM) flux limits. A critical piece of SIM exoplanet science will be to determine the frequency and nature of planets in binary star systems. Among the most scientifically interesting of these will be wide, low-mass binaries, in which planetary orbits about one or both stars are stable and where the detection of planets in the habitable zones is most feasible. Importantly, our sample includes a broad diversity of stellar sub-populations that are of considerable interest for determining the frequency of planets in different regimes of physical parameter space: stellar mass ratios, metallicity, age, activity, and dynamical history. Finally, to explore the value-added stellar science made possible with our sample, we show initial results from a study to determine which multiple observations of SLoWPoKES binaries with SIM's exquisite astrometric precision will permit the determination of orbital parameters and dynamical stellar masses with which to test stellar evolutionary models.
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