The Solar Neighborhood. 35. Distances to 1404 M Dwarf Systems Within 25 PC in the Southern Sky

We present trigonometric, photometric, and photographic distances to 1748 southern (delta <= 0 degrees) M dwarf systems with mu >= 0 " 18 yr(-1), of which 1404 are believed to lie within 25 pc of the Sun. The stars have 6.67 <= V-J <= 21.38 and 3.50 <= (V-J - K-s) <= 9.27, covering the entire M dwarf spectral sequence from M0.0 V through M9.5 V. This sample therefore provides a comprehensive snapshot of our current knowledge of the southern sky for the nearest M dwarfs that dominate the stellar population of the Galaxy. Roughly one-third of the 1748 systems, each of which has an M dwarf primary, have published high quality parallaxes, including 179 from the REsearch Consortium On Nearby Stars astrometry program. For the remaining systems, we offer photometric distance estimates that have well-calibrated errors. The bulk of these (similar to 700) are based on new VJRKCIKC photometry acquired at the CTIO/SMARTS 0.9 m telescope, while the remaining 500 primaries have photographic plate distance estimates calculated using SuperCOSMOS BJR59FIIVN photometry. Confirmed and candidate subdwarfs in the sample have been identified, and a census of companions is included.