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Description
There is growing evidence that M-dwarf stars suffer radius inflation when compared to theoretical models, suggesting that models are missing some key physics required to completely describe stars at effective temperatures (TSED) less than about 4000K. The advent of Gaia DR2 distances finally makes available large datasets to determine the nature and extent of this effect.We employ an all-sky sample, comprising of >15000 stars, to determine empirical relation-ships between luminosity, temperature and radius.This is accomplished using only geometric distances and multiwave-band photometry, by utilising a modified spectral energy distribution fitting method. The radii we measure show an inflation of 3-7% compared to models, but nomore than a 1-2% intrinsic spread in the inflated sequence. We show that we are currently able to determine M-dwarf radii to an accuracy of 2.4% using our method. However, we determine that this is limited by the precision of metallicity measurements, which contribute 1.7% to the measured radius scatter. We also present evidence that stellar magnetism is currently unable to explain radius inflation in M-dwarfs.
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