The population of M dwarfs observed at low radio frequencies

Abstract

Coherent low-frequency (≲200 MHz) radio emission from stars encodes the conditions of the outer corona, mass-ejection events and space weather 1–5. Previous low-frequency searches for radio-emitting stellar systems have lacked the sensitivity to detect the general population, instead largely focusing on targeted studies of anomalously active stars 5–9. Here we present 19 detections of coherent radio emission associated with known M dwarfs from a blind flux-limited low-frequency survey. Our detections show that coherent radio emission is ubiquitous across the M dwarf main sequence, and that the radio luminosity is independent of known coronal and chromospheric activity indicators. While plasma emission can generate the low-frequency emission from the most chromospherically active stars of our sample 1,10, the origin of the radio emission from the most quiescent sources is yet to be ascertained. Large-scale analogues of the magnetospheric processes seen in gas giant planets 3,11,12 probably drive the radio emission associated with these quiescent stars. The slowest-rotating stars of this sample are candidate systems to search for star–planet interaction signatures.