Magnetic Inflation and Stellar Mass. IV. Four Low-mass Kepler Eclipsing Binaries Consistent with Non-magnetic Stellar Evolutionary Models

Abstract

Abstract Low-mass eclipsing binaries (EBs) show systematically larger radii than model predictions for their mass, metallicity, and age. Prominent explanations for the inflation involve enhanced magnetic fields generated by rapid rotation of the star that inhibit convection and/or suppress flux from the star via starspots. However, derived masses and radii for individual EB systems often disagree in the literature. In this paper, we continue to investigate low-mass EBs observed by NASA’s Kepler spacecraft, deriving stellar masses and radii using high-quality space-based light curves and radial velocities from high-resolution infrared spectroscopy. We report masses and radii for three Kepler EBs, two of which agree with previously published masses and radii (KIC 11922782 and KIC 9821078). For the third EB (KIC 7605600), we report new masses and show the secondary component is likely fully convective (M 2 = 0.17 ± 0.01M ☉ and ). Combined with KIC 10935310 from Han et al., we find that the masses and radii for four low-mass Kepler EBs are consistent with modern stellar evolutionary models for M dwarf stars and do not require inhibited convection by magnetic fields to account for the stellar radii.