J/AJ/170/168 Rotation periods of late M-dwarfs from TESS (Lambier+, 2025)
Rotation periods of candidate single late-M dwarfs in TESS.
Lambier S., Metchev S., Miles-Paez P., Moranta L., Wolfe D., Hales J.,
Martinovic J.
<Astron. J., 170, 168 (2025)>
=2025AJ....170..168L 2025AJ....170..168L
ADC_Keywords: Stars, dwarfs; Stars, M-type; Photometry, infrared; Optical;
Colors; Stars, variable
Keywords: M dwarf stars ; Observational astronomy ; Periodic variable stars ;
Stellar rotation
Abstract:
Recent studies suggest that the angular momentum evolution of late-M
and brown dwarfs differs from the well-known spin-down evolution of
hotter stars. Characterizing the distribution of rotation periods of
these objects in the solar neighborhood can help elucidate this
evolutionary pathway just above, at, and below the hydrogen-burning
limit. In this paper, we examine 399 candidate single late-M dwarfs
with G-GRP≥1.4mag (≥M6) using Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite
(TESS) light curves. To determine rotation periods, we employed
Lomb-Scargle periodograms to provide a first estimate of the period,
then refined them with a Gaussian process approach, requiring
multisector confirmation when available. We found 133 rotation
periods, ranging from 2hr to 6days, and amplitudes between 0.08% and
2.71%. We find that the observed variability fraction in late-M dwarfs
rises with the number of available TESS sectors, approaching an
apparent ceiling of ∼50%. This likely reflects a detection limit
determined by viewing geometry and supports the idea that spot-induced
variability is common across the late-M and brown dwarf population. In
our comparison with previously published late-M dwarf rotation periods
reported, we found consistent results, confirming or updating 31
periods. Our findings expand the number of previously known late-M
dwarf periods under 1day by 76%. Combined with published rotation
periods for a broader range of spectral types, we find a lower
envelope on the rotation period decreasing from 5hr at early-M dwarfs
to 1hr at L, T, and Y dwarfs.
Description:
Our goal is to determine the rotation periods of all single M6-type or
later dwarf stars observed by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey
Satellite (TESS; TIC, IV/39). We started by selecting targets from the
Gaia Catalogue of Nearby Stars (GCNS; Smart+2021, J/A+A/649/A6), the
100pc subset of Gaia EDR3 (I/350), and updated their G magnitudes from
Gaia DR3 (I/355). The GCNS catalog also contains photometric
information from 2MASS (II/246), which was utilized in the selection
criteria along with color to select ≥M6 dwarfs. This first estimate
of the population of late-M dwarfs in Gaia includes 42,165 objects.
As we are only interested in objects with TESS light curves, we limit
our sample based on TESS magnitude. Data were downloaded on 2025
January 16, with data available up to Sector 85 (ended on November
21st, 2024). We set a limit of T≤18mag, which results in a list of
21,405 candidate late-M dwarfs.
File Summary:
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FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
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ReadMe 80 . This file
table1.dat 65 21405 All 21,405 candidate late-M dwarfs with T≤18mag
table2.dat 291 133 The 133 candidate single periodic uncontaminated
TESS late-M dwarfs found in this work
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See also:
B/gcvs : General Catalogue of Variable Stars (Samus+, 2007-2017)
IV/39 : TESS Input Catalog version 8.2 (TIC v8.2) (Paegert+, 2021)
III/284 : APOGEE-2 data from DR16 (Johnsson+, 2020)
II/246 : 2MASS All-Sky Catalog of Point Sources (Cutri+ 2003)
J/A+A/467/785 : SuperWASP/ROSAT periodic variable stars (Norton+, 2007)
J/MNRAS/408/475 : HATNet Pleiades Rotation Period Catalogue (Hartman+, 2010)
J/AJ/141/166 : HATNet variability survey of K and M dwarfs (Hartman+, 2011)
J/AcA/62/67 : ASAS photometry of ROSAT sources (Kiraga, 2012)
J/AcA/63/53 : ASAS photometry of ROSAT sources. II. (Kiraga+, 2013)
J/MNRAS/432/1203 : Rotation periods of M-dwarf stars (McQuillan+, 2013)
J/ApJS/208/9 : Intrinsic colors and temperatures of PMS stars (Pecaut+, 2013)
J/A+A/560/A4 : Rotation periods of active Kepler stars (Reinhold+, 2013)
J/ApJS/225/10 : Kinematic analysis of M7-L8 dwarfs (Faherty+, 2016)
J/ApJ/821/93 : Rotation & Galactic kinematics of mid M dwarfs (Newton+, 2016)
J/MNRAS/463/1844 : M dwarfs rotation-activity relation (Stelzer+, 2016)
J/MNRAS/474/2094 : Inferring probabilistic stellar rot. periods (Angus+, 2018)
J/A+A/619/A32 : CARMENES SB2 orbital parameters (Baroch+, 2018)
J/AJ/156/217 : Stellar properties for M dwarfs in MEarth-South (Newton+, 2018)
J/A+A/619/L8 : Ultra-cool dwarfs candidates in Gaia DR2 (Reyle, 2018)
J/A+A/621/A126 : CARMENES input catalogue of M dwarfs. IV. (Diez Alonso+ 2019)
J/ApJS/250/20 : Rot. periods in TESS objects of interest (TOIs) (Canto+, 2020)
J/A+A/637/A22 : M dwarfs rotation-activity relations and flares (Raetz+, 2020)
J/A+A/643/A112 : CARMENES VIS RVs of 3 M dwarfs (Stock+, 2020)
J/AJ/160/38 : Spitzer variability detections of 79 brown dwarfs (Vos+, 2020)
J/A+A/649/A6 : Gaia Cat. of Nearby Stars - GCNS (Gaia collaboration, 2021)
J/A+A/652/A28 : Activity indicators across the M dwarf domain (Lafarga+, 2021)
J/A+A/649/A3 : Gaia EDR3 photometric passbands (Riello+, 2021)
J/A+A/645/A100 : SPECULOOS. Ultracool dwarf transit survey (Sebastian+, 2021)
J/A+A/650/A138 : TRAPPIST-1 analogue stars TESS light curves (Seli+, 2021)
J/AJ/164/251 : ZTF measured rot. period of 40553 M- or G-dwarfs (Lu+, 2022)
J/ApJ/935/104 : Catalog of Stellar Flares in 219 M-dwarfs (Medina+, 2022)
J/ApJS/268/4 : Stellar variab. with TESS 2min cadence phot. (Fetherolf+, 2023)
J/A+A/669/A139 : Ultracool dwarfs in Gaia DR3 (Sarro+, 2023)
J/other/NatAs/8.223 : Stellar spin-down law (Lu+, 2024)
J/A+A/684/A9 : Rotation periods for 261 M dwarfs (Shan+, 2024)
Byte-by-byte Description of file: table1.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1- 19 I19 --- GaiaDR3 Gaia DR3 (I/355) source ID
21- 27 F7.4 mag RPMag [10.2/18.5] Absolute Gaia G_RP magnitude
(absRP)
29- 35 F7.4 mag Tmag [9.5/18] TESS magnitude
37- 42 F6.4 mag G-RP [1.4/2.8] Gaia G - GRP color
44- 49 F6.4 mag G-J [3.4/8.5] Gaia G - 2MASS J color
51- 53 A3 --- NotBinary Indicates if the target passes the binary
check (1)
55- 57 A3 --- Uncrowded Indicates if the target is in an uncrowded
TESS field (2)
59- 61 A3 --- PDCSAPData Indicates if the target has TESS SPOC
PDCSAP data (3)
63- 65 A3 --- Periodic Indicates if the target is periodic (4)
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Note (1): Binary flag (see Section 2.3) as follows:
Yes = Considered as a single star (15478 occurrences)
No = Considered as a potential binary star (5927 occurrences)
Note (2): Crowded field flag (see Section 2.4) as follows:
Yes = Not in a crowded TESS field (2413 occurrences)
No = Potential contamination from crowding (18992 occurrences)
Note (3): Data from the TESS Science Processing Operations Center (SPOC)
pipeline, using pre-search data conditioning simple aperture photometry
(PDCSAP), were downloaded on 2025 January 16, with data available up to Sector
85 (see Section 2.5). Availability flag as follows:
Yes = PDCSAP data was available (402 occurrences)
No = PDCSAP data was not available (1424 occurrences)
= Already discarded, Binary and/or Crowded flag is No (19579 occurrences)
Note (4): Periodicity flag as follows:
Yes = The target is periodic (133 occurrences)
No = The target is not periodic (269 occurrences)
= Already discarded, PDCSAP data not available (21003 occurrences)
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Byte-by-byte Description of file: table2.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1- 19 I19 --- GaiaDR3 Gaia DR3 (I/355) source ID
21- 103 A83 --- PDCSAPSector Sectors of PDCSAP data available (1)
105- 223 A119 --- eleanorSector Sectors of eleanor data available (1)
225- 231 F7.5 d Per [0.08/6] Rotation period
233- 239 F7.5 d E_Per [5e-5/0.5] Upper uncertainty on
rotation period
241- 247 F7.5 d e_Per [9e-5/0.7] Lower uncertainty on
rotation period
249- 254 F6.4 % Amp [0.08/2.8] Amplitude of variability
256- 261 F6.4 % e_Amp [3e-3/0.2] Uncertainty on Amp
263- 264 I2 --- BestSector [1/84] Sector with the highest
amplitude SNR (1)
266- 282 A17 --- BestMethod Method with the highest amplitude SNR
(2)
284- 291 A8 --- Status Whether the periodicity is real or
possible (3)
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Note (1): Total (PDCSAP+eleanor) and best TESS sector occurrences as follows:
1 = 10 total and 1 best occurrences; 2018 July 25 to 2018 August 22
2 = 28 total and 5 best occurrences; 2018 August 22 to 2018 September 20
3 = 27 total and 4 best occurrences; 2018 September 20 to 2018 October 18
4 = 22 total and 3 best occurrences; 2018 October 18 to 2018 November 15
5 = 11 total and 1 best occurrences; 2018 November 15 to 2018 December 11
6 = 4 total and 1 best occurrences; 2018 December 11 to 2019 January 07
7 = 6 total occurrences; 2019 January 07 to 2019 February 02
8 = 10 total occurrences; 2019 February 02 to 2019 February 28
9 = 10 total and 3 best occurrences; 2019 February 28 to 2019 March 26
10 = 2 total occurrences; 2019 March 26 to 2019 April 22
11 = 3 total occurrences; 2019 April 22 to 2019 May 21
12 = 2 total occurrences; 2019 May 21 to 2019 June 19
14 = 18 total and 1 best occurrences; 2019 July 18 to 2019 August 15
15 = 20 total occurrences; 2019 August 15 to 2019 September 11
16 = 15 total occurrences; 2019 September 11 to 2019 October 07
17 = 18 total and 1 best occurrences; 2019 October 07 to 2019 November 02
18 = 10 total occurrences; 2019 November 02 to 2019 November 27
19 = 8 total and 1 best occurrences; 2019 November 27 to 2019 December 24
20 = 16 total and 4 best occurrences; 2019 December 24 to 2020 January 21
21 = 35 total and 7 best occurrences; 2020 January 21 to 2020 February 18
22 = 29 total and 7 best occurrences; 2020 February 18 to 2020 March 18
23 = 30 total and 2 best occurrences; 2020 March 18 to 2020 April 16
24 = 16 total and 2 best occurrences; 2020 April 16 to 2020 May 13
25 = 8 total occurrences; 2020 May 13 to 2020 June 08
26 = 6 total occurrences; 2020 June 08 to 2020 July 04
27 = 8 total and 1 best occurrences; 2020 July 04 to 2020 July 30
28 = 14 total and 1 best occurrences; 2020 July 30 to 2020 August 26
29 = 29 total and 3 best occurrences; 2020 August 26 to 2020 September 22
30 = 30 total and 6 best occurrences; 2020 September 22 to 2020 October 21
31 = 24 total and 6 best occurrences; 2020 October 21 to 2020 November 19
32 = 8 total and 2 best occurrences; 2020 November 19 to 2020 December 17
33 = 2 total occurrences; 2020 December 17 to 2021 January 13
34 = 8 total occurrences; 2021 January 13 to 2021 February 09
35 = 10 total occurrences; 2021 February 09 to 2021 March 07
36 = 8 total and 1 best occurrences; 2021 March 07 to 2021 April 02
37 = 2 total occurrences; 2021 April 02 to 2021 April 28
38 = 4 total and 1 best occurrences; 2021 April 28 to 2021 May 26
39 = 2 total occurrences; 2021 May 26 to 2021 June 24
40 = 14 total and 1 best occurrences; 2021 June 24 to 2021 July 23
41 = 18 total and 1 best occurrences; 2021 July 23 to 2021 August 20
42 = 32 total and 1 best occurrences; 2021 August 20 to 2021 September 16
43 = 29 total and 1 best occurrences; 2021 September 16 to 2021 October 12
44 = 16 total and 1 best occurrences; 2021 October 12 to 2021 November 06
45 = 20 total and 3 best occurrences; 2021 November 06 to 2021 December 02
46 = 30 total and 6 best occurrences; 2021 December 02 to 2021 December 30
47 = 20 total and 1 best occurrences; 2021 December 30 to 2022 January 28
48 = 42 total and 5 best occurrences; 2022 January 28 to 2022 February 26
49 = 30 total and 3 best occurrences; 2022 February 26 to 2022 March 26
50 = 24 total and 5 best occurrences; 2022 March 26 to 2022 April 22
51 = 20 total and 3 best occurrences; 2022 April 22 to 2022 May 18
52 = 4 total occurrences; 2022 May 18 to 2022 June 13
53 = 8 total occurrences; 2022 June 13 to 2022 July 09
54 = 8 total occurrences; 2022 July 09 to 2022 August 05
55 = 8 total occurrences; 2022 August 05 to 2022 September 01
56 = 12 total occurrences; 2022 September 01 to 2022 September 30
57 = 18 total and 2 best occurrences; 2022 September 30 to 2022 October 29
58 = 9 total and 1 best occurrences; 2022 October 29 to 2022 November 26
59 = 4 total occurrences; 2022 November 26 to 2022 December 23
60 = 12 total and 1 best occurrences; 2022 December 23 to 2023 January 18
61 = 8 total and 3 best occurrences; 2023 January 18 to 2023 February 12
62 = 12 total and 2 best occurrences; 2023 February 12 to 2023 March 10
63 = 6 total occurrences; 2023 March 10 to 2023 April 06
64 = 4 total occurrences; 2023 April 06 to 2023 May 04
65 = 2 total occurrences; 2023 May 04 to 2023 June 02
66 = 2 total occurrences; 2023 June 02 to 2023 July 01
67 = 8 total occurrences; 2023 July 01 to 2023 July 29
68 = 14 total and 3 best occurrences; 2023 July 29 to 2023 August 25
69 = 28 total and 3 best occurrences; 2023 August 25 to 2023 September 20
70 = 39 total and 9 best occurrences; 2023 September 20 to 2023 October 16
71 = 24 total and 4 best occurrences; 2023 October 16 to 2023 November 11
72 = 19 total and 2 best occurrences; 2023 November 11 to 2023 December 07
73 = 5 total occurrences; 2023 December 07 to 2024 January 03
74 = 8 total and 1 best occurrences; 2024 January 03 to 2024 January 30
75 = 16 total and 1 best occurrences; 2024 January 30 to 2024 February 26
76 = 8 total occurrences; 2024 February 26 to 2024 March 26
77 = 10 total occurrences; 2024 March 26 to 2024 April 23
78 = 8 total occurrences; 2024 April 23 to 2024 May 21
79 = 2 total occurrences; 2024 May 21 to 2024 June 18
80 = 4 total occurrences; 2024 June 18 to 2024 July 15
81 = 4 total and 1 best occurrences; 2024 July 15 to 2024 August 10
82 = 3 total occurrences; 2024 August 10 to 2024 September 05
83 = 8 total and 3 best occurrences; 2024 September 05 to 2024 October 01
84 = 10 total and 2 best occurrences; 2024 October 01 to 2024 October 26
85 = 4 total occurrences; 2024 October 26 to 2024 November 21
Note (2): Methods as follows:
PDCSAP = 52 occurrences
PDCSAP Detrended = 49 occurrences
Eleanor = 14 occurrences
Eleanor Detrended = 18 occurrences
Note (3): Status as follows:
Real = 103 occurrences
Possible = 30 occurrences
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History:
From electronic version of the journal
License: CC-BY-4.0
(End) Prepared by [AAS], Robin Leichtnam [CDS] 02-Jul-2026