First Results from the Chara Array. Iv. the Interferometric Radii of Low-mass Stars

We have measured the angular diameters of six M dwarfs with the CHARA Array, a long-baseline optical interferometer located at Mount Wilson Observatory. Spectral types range from M1.0 V to M3.0 Vand linear radii from 0.38 to 0.69 R . These results are consistent with the seven other M dwarf radii measurements from optical interferometry and with those for 14 stars in eclipsing binary systems. We compare all directly measured M dwarf radii to model predictions and find that current models underestimate the true stellar radii by up to 15%–20%. The differences are small among the metal-poor stars but become significantly larger with increasing metallicity. This suggests that theoretical models for low-mass stars may be missing some opacity source that alters the computed stellar radii. Subject headinggs: infrared: stars — instrumentation: high angular resolution — instrumentation: interferometers — stars: individual (GJ 15A, GJ 514, GJ 526, GJ 687, GJ 752A, GJ 880) — stars: late-type