Ben Schurman

Low mass stars, or M-Dwarf stars, are roughly 10-60% of the Sun’s mass. However, the low mass stars that we observe are slightly larger and cooler than what stellar models predict they should be. Are these discrepancies the true parameters of these stars, or are they caused by stellar phenomena influencing our measurements? To understand the issue, I will use eclipsing binary stars, or stars that orbit a common center of mass and appear to eclipse one another from the perspective of Earth. I will study an eclipsing binary, HD 74925, and create a stellar model based in Python utilizing the package exoplanet to model this binary star. This stellar model will be able to predict the radii and masses of each star in the binary system. To get their respective uncertainties, we will sample the parameter space to best estimate the uncertainties. With a python-based model, I will compare how it models the system with a model created by my mentor in EXOFASTv2, which is IDL based, and then move onto more complex eclipsing binary systems. More work remains to be done with tweaking the model to accurately represent the systems being studied, however initial tests of the code were successful. We will continue working to see whether low mass stars are indeed larger and cooler than expected, or if there is other phenomena at play.