Mind the Gap. II. The Near-UV Fluxes of M Dwarfs

Abstract

Because of the continuous variations in mass, metallicity, and opacity, dwarf stars are distributed along the main sequence on optical and near-IR color–magnitude diagrams following a smooth polynomial. In this study, utilizing a catalog of crossmatched Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) and Gaia sources, we identify two distinct populations of M dwarfs in the near-UV (NUV) band on the M_NUV versus M_G diagram. We also reveal a pronounced increase in the number of stars exhibiting high NUV fluxes near the spectral type M2 or M_G ~ 9.4, coinciding with the H₂ formation in the atmosphere that improves the energy transportation at the surface. This suggests that certain yet-to-be-understood stellar mechanisms drive heightened activity in the NUV band around the effective temperatures of M2 and later types of M dwarfs. Through examination of archival Hubble Space Telescope spectra, we show that Fe II line forests at ~2400 Å and 2800 Å dominate the spectral features in the GALEX NUV bandpass, contributing to the observed excess fluxes at a given mass between the two populations. Additionally, our investigation indicates that fast rotators and young stars likely increase in brightness in the NUV band, but not all stars with bright NUV fluxes are fast rotators or young stars.