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Abstract: One key question that astronomy is
attempting to answer is whether there are habitable planets around
stars other than our Sun. While we have entered an era where
identifying nearby exoplanets has become standard, discerning whether
the environmental conditions dictated by the host stars are suitable
for life has proved far more elusive. The detection of low-frequency
radio emission from an M dwarf or an exoplanet provides a direct probe
of extrasolar space weather and the planet's magnetic field -
information crucial for assessing the potential habitability of the
planet. In this talk, I will outline our LOFAR survey of stellar
systems, with a focus on our recent detection of strong, highly
circularly polarised low-frequency radio emission associated with
nearby stars - the expected signpost of star-exoplanet interactions. I
will discuss how our survey represents the most comprehensive
observations of stellar systems at low frequencies, and the
implications of this new population in understanding the magnetosphere
of M dwarfs and exoplanetary magnetic fields.
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