Investigating the Properties of Low-Mass Stars Using Spectra of Wide Binaries

We present results from a study designed to characterize wide, low-mass (< 0.5 M_Sun) binaries identified in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). We examine the SDSS database level completeness (for identifying visual binaries) and analyze the pairs that both have individual SDSS spectra. A comprehensive by-eye examination reveals that a significant fraction of the sources within 1" of the primary stellar source are misclassified as duplicate detections and, hence, are omitted from the photometric primary catalog in the SDSS database. This discrepancy has a noticeable effect on estimates of the binary fraction, mass function, luminosity function, and other studies that rely on large, photometric samples of low-mass stars. Due to their coeval nature, binaries with at least one low-mass component are important for calibrating the age-activity relation and the relative metallicity scales. Better defined stellar ages and metallicities allow for a proper analysis of stellar and Galactic evolution using ubiquitous low-mass stars. We constructed a spectroscopic sample of wide binaries, for which there is at least one low-mass component and an individual spectrum for each star. Each binary was verified using measurements of their common proper motions and a chance alignment probability calculated from a six-dimensional model of the Milky Way. The orbital separation of the binary components provides an extra age constraint due to mechanisms that destroy wide binaries during thin-disk dynamical heating. We evaluate the behavior of the magnetic activity in coeval systems, with a specific focus on the dependence of activity on orbital separation and location in the Galactic disk. The preliminary results of our analysis will help calibrate the age-activity relation in M dwarfs. In addition, we calibrate the relative metallicity scale for metal poor K and M dwarfs using a modified index based on TiO and CaH molecular band features.