The Quest for Pulsating M Dwarf Stars

Abstract

Recent fully non-adiabatic theoretical studies of M dwarf models show that they have the potential to excite radial, and low-order, low-degree non-radial modes, as well as solar-like oscillations, due to models being completely convective or having large convective envelopes. The observational efforts aiming at discovering pulsating M dwarfs with photometric ground-based and space observations, and with high-precision spectroscopy are presented. With periods predicted in the 20 min to 3 h range and empirically estimated amplitudes of just a few μmag or a few tens of cm s−1, a clear detection of a pulsating M dwarf has not yet been achieved, and the race is still open. The precision attained by the latest-generation high-resolution spectrographs, of the order of cm s−1, may be the key to unveil the, until today, elusive pulsations in M dwarf stars.