The POKEMON Speckle Survey of Nearby M Dwarfs. IV. Distance-limited Catalog (POKEMON-DLC)

July 2026 • 2026AJ....172...40C

Authors • Clark, Catherine A. • Rustamkulov, Zafar • van Belle, Gerard T. • Everett, Mark E. • Littlefield, Colin • Deveny, Sarah J. • Ciardi, David R. • von Braun, Kaspar

Abstract • The solar neighborhood is dominated by stars smaller, colder, and fainter than the Sun: the M dwarfs. If we are to understand the context in which the Sun formed and evolved, then we must investigate the system architectures of our low-mass neighbors. We have therefore carried out the Pervasive Overview of Kompanions of Every M Dwarf in Our Neighborhood (POKEMON) speckle survey of nearby M dwarf primaries. We created the survey with the goal of observing a volume-limited (north of −30^∘) sample of M dwarf primaries through M9 out to 15 pc at diffraction-limited resolution. Pre-Gaia parallax measurements yielded a catalog of 454 nearby M dwarf primaries. However, the precise astrometry from Gaia indicated that there are additional low-mass sources within 15 pc. Here we present the POKEMON-Distance Limited Catalog, a supplemental catalog that consists of speckle observations for the 66 additional M dwarf primaries identified by Gaia, increasing the number of ultracool dwarf (later than M6.5) primaries in the POKEMON catalog by a factor of 1.6. In our observations we detect four likely bound companions. After carrying out a literature search for additional companions, we update the projected separation distribution and find a peak at 7.91 au (σ_log(a) = 1.1, SE_log(a) = 0.10). We also update the M dwarf stellar multiplicity and companion rates, and find values of 22.7% ± 1.8% and 27.5% ± 2.0%, respectively. These results emphasize the utility of Gaia for identifying low-mass, nearby sources, and we find that ensuing characterization of these sources by SPHEREx will continue to clarify the nature of the solar neighborhood.

Links

• ELECTR https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ae63c2