CARMENES input catalogue of M dwarfs

V. Luminosities, colours, and spectral energy distributions^⋆

¹ Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC–INTA), ESAC, Camino Bajo del Castillo s/n, 28691 Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid, Spain
e-mail: ccifuentes@cab.inta-csic.es
² Spanish Virtual Observatory, Spain
³ Departamento de Física de la Tierra y Astrofísica & IPARCOS-UCM (Instituto de Física de Partículas y del Cosmos de la UCM), Facultad de Ciencias Físicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain
⁴ Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), Calle Vía Láctea, s/n, 38205 San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
⁵ Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC-INTA), Carretera de Ajalvir km 4, 28850 Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain
⁶ Institut de Ciències de l’Espai (CSIC-IEEC), Can Magrans s/n, Campus UAB, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain
⁷ Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC), 08034 Barcelona, Spain
⁸ Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA-CSIC), Glorieta de la Astronomía s/n, 18008 Granada, Spain
⁹ Hamburger Sternwarte, Gojenbergsweg 112, 21029 Hamburg, Germany
¹⁰ Homer L. Dodge Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Oklahoma, 440 West Brooks Street, Norman, OK 73019, USA
¹¹ Landessternwarte, Zentrum für Astronomie der Universtät Heidelberg, Königstuhl 12, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
¹² Institut für Astrophysik, Georg-August-Universität, Friedrich-Hund-Platz 1, 37077 Göttingen, Germany

Received: 29 April 2020
Accepted: 10 July 2020

Abstract

Context. The relevance of M dwarfs in the search for potentially habitable Earth-sized planets has grown significantly in the last years.

Aims. In our on-going effort to comprehensively and accurately characterise confirmed and potential planet-hosting M dwarfs, in particular for the CARMENES survey, we have carried out a comprehensive multi-band photometric analysis involving spectral energy distributions, luminosities, absolute magnitudes, colours, and spectral types, from which we have derived basic astrophysical parameters.

Methods. We have carefully compiled photometry in 20 passbands from the ultraviolet to the mid-infrared, and combined it with the latest parallactic distances and close-multiplicity information, mostly from Gaia DR2, of a sample of 2479 K5 V to L8 stars and ultracool dwarfs, including 2210 nearby, bright M dwarfs. For this, we made extensive use of Virtual Observatory tools.

Results. We have homogeneously computed accurate bolometric luminosities and effective temperatures of 1843 single stars, derived their radii and masses, studied the impact of metallicity, and compared our results with the literature. The over 40 000 individually inspected magnitudes, together with the basic data and derived parameters of the stars, individual and averaged by spectral type, have been made public to the astronomical community. In addition, we have reported 40 new close multiple systems and candidates (ρ <  3.3 arcsec) and 36 overluminous stars that are assigned to young Galactic populations.

Conclusions. In the new era of exoplanet searches around M dwarfs via transit (e.g. TESS, PLATO) and radial velocity (e.g. CARMENES, NIRPS+HARPS), this work is of fundamental importance for stellar and therefore planetary parameter determination.