Orbiting Clouds of Material at the Keplerian Co-rotation Radius of Rapidly Rotating Low-mass WTTs in Upper Sco
- Stauffer, John
- Cameron, Andrew Collier
- Jardine, Moira
- David, Trevor J.
- Rebull, Luisa
- Cody, Ann Marie
- Hillenbrand, Lynne A.
- Barrado y Navascués, David
- Wolk, Scott
- Davenport, James
- Pinsonneault, Marc
DOIAbstract
Using K2 data, we identified 23 very-low-mass members of the ρ Oph and Upper Scorpius star-forming region as having periodic photometric variability not easily explained by well-established physical mechanisms such as star spots, eclipsing binaries, or pulsation. All of these unusual stars are mid-to-late M dwarfs without evidence of active accretion, and with photometric periods generally <1 day. Often the unusual light-curve signature takes the form of narrow flux dips; when we also have rotation periods from star spots, the two periods agree, suggesting that the flux dips are due to material orbiting the star at the Keplerian co-rotation radius. We sometimes see "state-changes" in the phased light-curve morphologies where ~25% of the wa...
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