1,957 research outputs found
Chemical Abundances from the Continuum
The calculation of solar absolute fluxes in the near-UV is revisited,
discussing in some detail recent updates in theoretical calculations of
bound-free opacity from metals. Modest changes in the abundances of elements
such as Mg and the iron-peak elements have a significant impact on the
atmospheric structure, and therefore self-consistent calculations are
necessary. With small adjustments to the solar photospheric composition, we are
able to reproduce fairly well the observed solar fluxes between 200 and 270 nm,
and between 300 and 420 nm, but find too much absorption in the 270-290 nm
window. A comparison between our reference 1D model and a 3D time-dependent
hydrodynamical simulation indicates that the continuum flux is only weakly
sensitive to 3D effects, with corrections reaching <10% in the near-UV, and <2%
in the optical.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the conference A
Stellar Journey, a symposium in celebration of Bengt Gustafsson's 65th
birthday, June 23-27, 2008, Uppsal
Fe I line shifts in the optical spectrum of the Sun
New improvements in the measurement of both the optical solar spectrum and
laboratory wavelengths for lines of neutral iron are combined to extract
central wavelength shifts for 1446 lines observed in the Sun. This provides the
largest available database of accurate solar wavelengths useful as a reference
for comparison with other solar-type stars. It is shown how the velocity shifts
correlate with line strength, approaching a constant value, close to zero, for
lines with equivalent widths larger than 200 mA.Comment: Latex file (5 pages), uses l-aa.sty and epsfig.sty (included); 3
Postscript figures, 1 ASCII table, accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysics Supplement Serie
Oxygen Abundances in Nearby FGK Stars and the Galactic Chemical Evolution of the Local Disk and Halo
Atmospheric parameters and oxygen abundances of 825 nearby FGK stars are
derived using high-quality spectra and a non-LTE analysis of the 777 nm O I
triplet lines. We assign a kinematic probability for the stars to be thin-disk
(P1), thick-disk (P2), and halo (P3) members. We confirm previous findings of
enhanced [O/Fe] in thick-disk (P2>0.5) relative to thin-disk (P1>0.5) stars
with [Fe/H]<-0.2, as well as a "knee" that connects the mean [O/Fe]-[Fe/H]
trend of thick-disk stars with that of thin-disk members at [Fe/H]>-0.2.
Nevertheless, we find that the kinematic membership criterion fails at
separating perfectly the stars in the [O/Fe]-[Fe/H] plane, even when a very
restrictive kinematic separation is employed. Stars with "intermediate"
kinematics (P1<0.7, P2<0.7) do not all populate the region of the [O/Fe]-[Fe/H]
plane intermediate between the mean thin-disk and thick-disk trends, but their
distribution is not necessarily bimodal. Halo stars (P3>0.5) show a large
star-to-star scatter in [O/Fe]-[Fe/H], but most of it is due to stars with
Galactocentric rotational velocity V-200 km/s
follow an [O/Fe]-[Fe/H] relation with almost no star-to-star scatter. Early
mergers with satellite galaxies explain most of our observations, but the
significant fraction of disk stars with "ambiguous" kinematics and abundances
suggests that scattering by molecular clouds and radial migration have both
played an important role in determining the kinematic and chemical properties
of solar neighborhood stars.Comment: ApJ, in press. Complete tables 2-6 are available in the source
(Download: Other formats -> Source
Disk stars in the Milky Way detected beyond 25 kpc from its center
CONTEXT. The maximum size of the Galactic stellar disk is not yet known. Some
studies have suggested an abrupt drop-off of the stellar density of the disk at
Galactocentric distances kpc, which means that in practice no
disk stars or only very few of them should be found beyond this limit. However,
stars in the Milky Way plane are detected at larger distances. In addition to
the halo component, star counts have placed the end of the disk beyond 20 kpc,
although this has not been spectroscopically confirmed so far.
AIMS. Here, we aim to spectroscopically confirm the presence of the disk
stars up to much larger distances.
METHODS. With data from the LAMOST and SDSS-APOGEE spectroscopic surveys, we
statistically derived the maximum distance at which the metallicity
distribution of stars in the Galactic plane is distinct from that of the halo
populations.
RESULTS. Our analysis reveals the presence of disk stars at R>26 kpc (99.7%
C.L.) and even at R>31 kpc (95.4% C.L.).Comment: 4 pages, accepted to be published in A&A-Letter
Velocities from Cross-Correlation: A Guide for Self-Improvement
The measurement of Doppler velocity shifts in spectra is a ubiquitous theme
in astronomy, usually handled by computing the cross-correlation of the
signals, and finding the location of its maximum. This paper addresses the
problem of the determination of wavelength or velocity shifts among multiple
spectra of the same, or very similar, objects. We implement the classical
cross-correlation method and experiment with several simple models to determine
the location of the maximum of the cross-correlation function. We propose a new
technique, 'self-improvement', to refine the derived solutions by requiring
that the relative velocity for any given pair of spectra is consistent with all
others. By exploiting all available information, spectroscopic surveys
involving large numbers of similar objects may improve their precision
significantly. As an example, we simulate the analysis of a survey of G-type
stars with the SDSS instrumentation. Applying 'self-improvement' refines
relative radial velocities by more than 50% at low signal-to-noise ratio. The
concept is equally applicable to the problem of combining a series of
spectroscopic observations of the same object, each with a different Doppler
velocity or instrument-related offset, into a single spectrum with an enhanced
signal-to-noise ratio.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, uses emulateapj.cls; to appear in the
Astronomical Journal; see http://hebe.as.utexas.edu/stools/ to obtain the
companion softwar
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