ALBERT

Description: We report the discovery of a new K dwarf rapid rotator with a potential white dwarf companion. The white dwarf accounts for over 90% of the observed extreme ultraviolet flux detected from this system. Analysis of ROSAT Wide Field Camera (WFC) and IUE data both suggest a white dwarf temperature of approximately 28,700 K. Optical photometry and the IUE long wavelength prime (LWP) spectrum (with the white dwarf contribution removed) imply that the late-type star has a spectral type of K1-3 V, and a distance of 55 +/- 5 pc. Using this distance, the observed IUE SWP flux, and the best-fit temperature results in a white dwarf radius of 0.0088 solar radius. The estimated white dwarf mass is then approximately 0.91 solar mass; somewhat over-massive compared to field white dwarfs. Optical photometry of the K star reveals a 'spot' modulation period of approximately 10 hr (now observed over 3 yr). However, radial velocity observations have revealed no significant variations. Spectroscopic observations place a low limit on the lithium abundance, but do show rapid rotation with a v sin i of 90 +/- 10 km/s. The K star was detected as a radio source at 3.6 cm (on two occasions) and 6 cm by the Very Large Array (VLA). The most likely evolutionary scenario is that the K star and hot white dwarf from either a wide binary or common proper motion pair with an age of 0.1-0.1 Gyr-consistent with the evolutionary timescale of the white dwarf and the rapid rotation of the K star. However, from the proper motion of the K star, this system does not seem to be associated with any of the known young stellar groups.

Description: We report the results of a volume-limited ROSAT Wide Field Camera (WFC) survey of all nondegenerate stars within 10 pc. Of the 220 known star systems within 10 pc, we find that 41 are positive detections in at least one of the two WFC filter bandpasses (S1 and S2), while we consider another 14 to be marginal detections. We compute X-ray luminosities for the WFC detections using Einstein Imaging Proportional Counter (IPC) data, and these IPC luminosities are discussed along with the WFC luminosities throughout the paper for purposes of comparison. Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) luminosity functions are computed for single stars of different spectral types using both S1 and S2 luminosities, and these luminosity functions are compared with X-ray luminosity functions derived by previous authors using IPC data. We also analyze the S1 and S2 luminosity functions of the binary stars within 10 pc. We find that most stars in binary systems do not emit EUV radiation at levels different from those of single stars, but there may be a few EUV-luminous multiple-star systems which emit excess EUV radiation due to some effect of binarity. In general, the ratio of X-ray luminosity to EUV luminosity increases with increasing coronal emission, suggesting that coronally active stars have higher coronal temperatures. We find that our S1, S2, and IPC luminosities are well correlated with rotational velocity, and we compare activity-rotation relations determined using these different luminosities. Late M stars are found to be significantly less luminous in the EUV than other late-type stars. The most natural explanation for this results is the concept of coronal saturation -- the idea that late-type stars can emit only a limited fraction of their total luminosity in X-ray and EUV radiation, which means stars with very low bolometric luminosities must have relatively low X-ray and EUV luminosities as well. The maximum level of coronal emission from stars with earlier spectral types is studied also. To understand the saturation levels for these stars, we have compiled a large number of IPC luminosities for stars with a wide variety of spectral types and luminosity classes. We show quantitatively that if the Sun were completely covered with X-ray-emitting coronal loops, it would be near the saturation limit implied by this compilation, supporting the idea that stars near upper limits in coronal activity are completely covered with active regions.