SLoWPoKES

Sloan Low-mass Wide Pairs of Kinematically Equivalent Systems













50"x50" gri composite images of CPM pairs found in the SLoWPoKES survey. Pictured are high-mass ratio pairs (top row), identical twins (middle row), white dwarf-disk dwarf pairs (bottom row, left), and halo SD pairs (bottom row, right). Spectral types based on their r-z colors are shown. Overall, 1342 wide, low-mass binaries were identified (Dhital et al. 2010).




AIMS

  • Identify low-mass (mid-K to M spectral types), wide (s > 1000 AU) pairs from the SDSS astrometry & photometry and SDSS/USNO-B proper motions.
  • Study the properties of wide, low-mass binaries, e.g. distribution of frequency, physical separation, and mass-ratios, and their impication on star formation models.
  • Study the higher-order-multiplicity and its implications on stability and formation scenarios of wide pairs.
  • Exploit the coevality and similar evolutionary history - while being dynamically independent - of these pairs to empirically measure and/or constrain various properties of low-mass stars, especially the metallicity and mass-age-activity-rotation relations.
  • Study the dynamical history and structure of the Milky Way using the disruption rate of wide, low-mass pairs.
  • Identify a subset of wide, low-mass binaries that would be optimum for detection of gaseous and terrestrial planets in future astrometric missions like SIM-Lite.