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QWSSI, the Quad-camera Wavefront-Sensing Speckle Imager, is a next-generation speckle imager that is being developed for Lowell Observatory's 4.3-meter Discovery Channel Telescopes. The principle behind QWSSI is to extend the capabilities of the speckle camera currently resident at Lowell, the Differential Speckle Survey Instrument (DSSI), in two ways. First, while DSSI currently observes in two visible channels, QWSSI will simultaneously observe in six narrow-band channels: four in the visible (0.5-0.9um), and one each in J- and H-band (1.2 and 1.6um). Second, the visible light unused for speckle imaging is carefully preserved and feeds a wavefront sensor (WFS), which is also run simultaneously with the speckle imaging. Simulations by Löbb (2016) indicate WFS data will provide significant gains in exploring stellar multiplicity, with marked improvements in primary-secondary contrast ratios and inner working angle (Horch et al. 2018). QWSSI will also be mountable on one of the three 1-meter telescopes being installed on the NPOI Array for engineering tests and preliminary science observations. QWSSI will expand on the already considerable exoplanetary work of the speckle imagers DSSI, NESSI (@ WIYN), Alopeke (Gemini-N), and Zorro (Gemini-S), improving the discovery space for existing targets, as well opening up new regions of that discovery space with its NIR channels.

We present the first results from the POKEMON (Pervasive Overview of Kompanions of Every M-dwarf in Our Neighborhood) survey, the largest speckle survey of stellar multiplicity ever produced for the objects that comprise over 70% of the stars in our galaxy: the M-dwarfs. We have conducted a volume-limited survey through M9 that inspected, at diffraction-limited resolution, every M-dwarf out to 15pc, with additional brighter targets to 25pc. POKEMON utilized the Differential Speckle Survey Instrument (DSSI) at the 4.3m Lowell Discovery Telescope, along with the NN-Explore Exoplanet Stellar Speckle Imager (NESSI) on the 3.5-m WIYN telescope. We report the discovery of 30+ new companions to these nearby M-dwarfs. Given the priority these targets have for exoplanet studies with TESS, and in the future JWST - and the degree to which initially undetected multiplicity has skewed Kepler results - a comprehensive survey of our nearby low-mass neighbors provides a homogeneous, complete catalog of fundamental utility. Prior knowledge of secondary objects - or robust non-detections, as captured by this survey - immediately clarify the nature of exoplanet transit detections from these current and upcoming missions.

While at first glance multi-star systems seem quite extreme, they are in fact the most common type of star system in our galaxy, throughout the stellar mass distribution. In particular, 40 to 50% of exoplanet host stars reside within multiple star systems. Given the degree to which initially undetected multiplicity has skewed Kepler results, high-resolution imaging of our nearby low-mass neighbors is necessary for both accurate characterization of transiting exoplanets, as well as a better understanding of stellar astrophysics. To address this frequent gap in our knowledge of exoplanet hosts, we will utilize speckle interferometry to directly image TESS exoplanet host candidates to complete our knowledge of individual star multiplicity. Our investigation will expand upon the speckle observations taken as a part of the POKEMON speckle survey of nearby M-dwarfs to better constrain the multiplicity of low-mass TESS exoplanet host candidates, and to constrain M-dwarf multiplicity by subtype across the entire M-dwarf sequence.

We present preliminary fundamental stellar parameters and multiplicity rates of M dwarf stars using a combination of speckle imaging and adaptive optics. Our survey mainly uses the Differential Speckle Survey Instrument (DSSI) at Lowell Observatory's Discovery Channel Telescope (DCT). DSSI observes speckle patterns simultaneously at two separate wavelengths and the data for this project are composed of observations which span from 2016 to 2018. More recently, the speckle data for some of the target stars that have been found to be binary have been supplemented with observations using Adaptive Optics (AO) at Palomar Observatory. The combination of speckle data in the visible and AO data in the near-infrared allows us to make robust determinations of the luminosities and effective temperatures of the components in each case. Using the known Mass-Luminosity Relation, we also estimate the component masses. A discussion of interesting systems will be given.

Stellar multiplicity is correlated with many stellar properties, yet multiplicity measurements have proven difficult for the M dwarfs—the most common type of star in our galaxy—due to their faintness and the fact that a reasonably complete inventory of later M dwarfs did not exist until recently. We have therefore carried out the Pervasive Overview of “Kompanions” of Every M dwarf in Our Neighborhood (POKEMON) survey, which made use of the Differential Speckle Survey Instrument on the 4.3 m Lowell Discovery Telescope, along with the NN-EXPLORE Exoplanet Stellar Speckle Imager on the 3.5 m WIYN telescope. The POKEMON sample is volume limited from M0V through M9V out to 15 pc, with additional brighter targets at larger distances. In total, 1125 targets were observed. New discoveries were presented in the first paper in the series. In this second paper in the series, we present all detected companions, gauge our astrometric and photometric precision, and compare our filtered and filterless speckle observations. We find that the majority (58.9%) of the companions we detect in our speckle images are not resolved in Gaia, demonstrating the need for high-resolution imaging in addition to long-term astrometric monitoring. Additionally, we find that the majority (73.2%) of simulated stellar companions would be detectable by our speckle observations. Specifically within 100 au, we find that 70.3% of simulated companions are recovered. Finally, we discuss future directions of the POKEMON survey.

This paper details speckle observations of binary stars taken at the Lowell Discovery Telescope, the WIYN telescope, and the Gemini telescopes between 2016 January and 2019 September. The observations taken at Gemini and Lowell were done with the Differential Speckle Survey Instrument (DSSI), and those done at WIYN were taken with the successor instrument to DSSI at that site, the NN-EXPLORE Exoplanet Star and Speckle Imager (NESSI). In total, we present 378 observations of 178 systems, and we show that the uncertainty in the measurement precision for the combined data set is ∼2 mas in separation, ∼1°-2° in position angle depending on the separation, and ∼0.1 mag in magnitude difference. Together with data already in the literature, these new results permit 25 visual orbits and one spectroscopic-visual orbit to be calculated for the first time. In the case of the spectroscopic-visual analysis, which is done on the ternary star HD 173093, we calculate masses with a precision of better than 1% for all three stars in that system. Twenty-one of the visual orbits calculated have a K dwarf as the primary star; we add these to the known orbits of K-dwarf primary stars and discuss the basic orbital properties of these stars at this stage. Although incomplete, the data that exist so far indicate that binaries with K-dwarf primaries tend not to have low-eccentricity orbits at separations of one to a few tens of astronomical units, that is, on solar system scales. © 2021 Institute of Physics Publishing. All rights reserved.

We report 370 measures of 170 components of binary and multiple-star systems, obtained from speckle imaging observations made with the Differential Speckle Survey Instrument at Lowell Observatory's Discovery Channel Telescope in 2015 through 2017. Of the systems studied, 147 are binary stars, 10 are seen as triple systems, and 1 quadruple system is measured. Seventy-six high-quality nondetections and 15 newly resolved components are presented in our observations. The uncertainty in relative astrometry appears to be similar to our previous work at Lowell, namely, linear measurement uncertainties of approximately 2 mas, and the relative photometry appears to be uncertain at the 0.1-0.15 mag level. Using these measures and those in the literature, we calculate six new visual orbits, including one for the Be star 66 Oph and two combined spectroscopic-visual orbits. The latter two orbits, which are for HD 22451 (YSC 127) and HD 185501 (YSC 135), yield individual masses of the components at the level of 2% or better, and independent distance measures that in one case agrees with the value found in the Gaia DR2 and in the other disagrees at the 2σ level. We find that HD 22451 consists of an F6V+F7V pair with orbital period of 2401.1 ± 3.2 days and masses of 1.342 ± 0.029 and 1.236 ± 0.026M⊙. For HD 185501, both stars are G5 dwarfs that orbit one another with a period of 433.94 ± 0.15 days, and the masses are 0.898 ± 0.012 and 0.876 ± 0.012M⊙ . We discuss the details of both the new discoveries and the orbit objects. © 2020. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..