All talk and no action: CMEs and prominences on M dwarfs

One of the most important questions in the field of exoplanets is the impact that stellar CMEs (and their energetic particles) may have on exoplanetary atmospheres. This is of particular importance if the parent star is an M dwarf, since their powerful flares suggest (based on the solar analogy) that they will have commensurably powerful CMEs. Stellar CMEs have proved difficult to detect however, leading to the suggestion that the solar relationship between flares and CMEs does not extend down to the M dwarf regime. Two lines of evidence - both modelling of coronal evolution in response to flux emergence and surface transport and observations of the surface magnetic energy and helicity densities - point to the low surface differential rotation of M dwarfs as a possible culprit.