PLANETS AROUND LOW-MASS STARS AND STELLAR ACTIVITY EFFECTS

In the last years the field of exoplanet research has focused its interest in M dwarfs. These stars have became the favourite targets in radial velocity surveys, specially when looking for small planets in the habitable zones of their parent stars. Not only for being the M dwarfs the most common objects in our Galaxy also because the Doppler signals due to small planets orbiting around them are larger and more easily detectable than those around FGK stars. However, stellar magnetic activity and rotation affect the measured radial velocities as surface inhomogeneities rotating with the stellar surface can cause periodic changes in the spectral line centroid. Disentangle these stellar activit…