Abstract

M-dwarfs constitute the vast majority of the nearest stars, forming over 70% of the Solar Neighborhood. Given their ubiquity and relative ease of planet detection, M-dwarfs and the lower mass brown dwarf population form target samples for many large ground- and space-based exoplanet searches. Understanding their system properties using a wide range of observational techniques is key to both optimizing these searches and interpreting their results. In particular, high-contrast adaptive optics imaging of low-mass stars is a sensitive technique to identify and characterize companions over a wide range of orbital separation, and submillimeter and spectroscopic disk studies at early evolutionary stages provide important environmental context for these systems. In this talk, I will describe studies of low-mass companion properties across a range of regions and ages: from the M-dwarfs in Multiples imaging survey of 245 field M dwarfs within 15 pc, to the Taurus Boundary of Stellar/Substellar Survey, an ongoing investigation of (sub)stellar disk properties and accretion within the Taurus star-forming region, and the atmospheric study of young low-mass companions from the Gemini Planet Imager.