Precise Mass, Orbital Motion, and Stellar Properties of the M-dwarf Binary LP 349−25AB

Abstract

LP 349−25 is a well-studied close stellar binary system comprised of two late M dwarf stars, where both stars are close to the limit between star and brown dwarf. This system was previously identified as a source of gigahertz radio emission. We observed LP 349−25AB over 11 epochs in 2020–2022, detecting both components in this nearby binary system using the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA). We fit simultaneously the VLBA absolute astrometric positions together with existing relative astrometric observations derived from optical/infrared observations with a set of algorithms that use nonlinear least-squares, genetic algorithm, and Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods to determine the orbital parameters of the two components. We find the masses of the primary and secondary components to be 0.08188 ± 0.00061 M ⊙ and 0.06411 ± 0.00049 M ⊙, respectively, representing one of the most precise mass estimates of any ultracool dwarf (UCD) to date. The primary is a UCD of 85.71 ± 0.64 M Jup, while the secondary has a mass consistent with being a brown dwarf of 67.11 ± 0.51 M Jup. This is one of the very few direct detections of a brown dwarf with VLBA observations. We also find a distance to the binary system of 14.122 ± 0.057 pc. Using stellar evolutionary models, we find the model-derived stellar parameters of both stars. In particular, we obtain a model-derived age of 262 Myr for the system, which indicates that LP 349−25AB is composed of two pre–main-sequence stars. In addition, we find that the secondary star is significantly less evolved than the primary star.