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

Lithium abundances in nearby FGK dwarf and subgiant stars: internal destruction, Galactic chemical evolution, and exoplanets

We derive atmospheric parameters and lithium abundances for 671 stars and include our measurements in a literature compilation of 1381 dwarf and subgiant stars. First, a "lithium desert" in the effective temperature (Teff) versus lithium abundance (A_Li) plane is observed such that no stars with Teff~6075 K and A_Li~1.8 are found. We speculate that most of the stars on the low A_Li side of the desert have experienced a short-lived period of severe surface lithium destruction as main-sequence or subgiant stars. Next, we search for differences in the lithium content of thin-disk and thick-disk stars, but we find that internal processes have erased from the stellar photospheres their possibly different histories of lithium enrichment. Nevertheless, we note that the maximum lithium abundance of thick-disk stars is nearly constant from [Fe/H]=-1.0 to -0.1, at a value that is similar to that measured in very metal-poor halo stars (A_Li~2.2). Finally, differences in the lithium abundance distribution of known planet-host stars relative to otherwise ordinary stars appear when restricting the samples to narrow ranges of Teff or mass, but they are fully explained by age and metallicity biases. We confirm the lack of a connection between low lithium abundance and planets. However, we find that no low A_Li planet-hosts are found in the desert Teff window. Provided that subtle sample biases are not responsible for this observation, this suggests that the presence of gas giant planets inhibit the mechanism responsible for the lithium desert.Comment: ApJ, in press. Complete Tables 1 and 3 are available upon reques

Line formation in solar granulation VI. [C I], C I, CH and C2 lines and the photospheric C abundance

The solar photospheric carbon abundance has been determined from [C I], C I, CH vibration-rotation, CH A-X electronic and C2 Swan electronic lines by means of a time-dependent, 3D, hydrodynamical model of the solar atmosphere. Departures from LTE have been considered for the C I lines. These turned out to be of increasing importance for stronger lines and are crucial to remove a trend in LTE abundances with the strengths of the lines. Very gratifying agreement is found among all the atomic and molecular abundance diagnostics in spite of their widely different line formation sensitivities. The mean of the solar carbon abundance based on the four primary abundance indicators ([C I], C I, CH vibration-rotation, C_2 Swan) is log C = 8.39 +/- 0.05, including our best estimate of possible systematic errors. Consistent results also come from the CH electronic lines, which we have relegated to a supporting role due to their sensitivity to the line broadening. The new 3D based solar C abundance is significantly lower than previously estimated in studies using 1D model atmospheres.Comment: Accepted for A&A, 13 page

Optical Surface Photometry of a Sample of Disk Galaxies. II Structural Components

This work presents the structural decomposition of a sample of 11 disk galaxies, which span a range of different morphological types. The U, B, V, R, and I photometric information given in Paper I (color and color-index images and luminosity, ellipticity, and position-angle profiles) has been used to decide what types of components form the galaxies before carrying out the decomposition. We find and model such components as bulges, disks, bars, lenses and rings.Comment: 14 figures. Accepted for publication in A&

The Infrared Massive Stellar Content of M83

We present an analysis of archival Spitzer images and new ground-based and Hubble Space Telescope (HST) near-infrared (IR) and optical images of the field of M83 with the goal of identifying rare, dusty, evolved massive stars. We present point source catalogs consisting of 3778 objects from $Spitzer$ Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) Band 1 (3.6 $\mu$m) and Band 2 (4.5 $\mu$m), and 975 objects identified in Magellan 6.5m FourStar near-IR $J$ and $K_{\rm s}$ images. A combined catalog of coordinate matched near- and mid-IR point sources yields 221 objects in the field of M83. Using this photometry we identify 185 massive evolved stellar candidates based on their location in color-magnitude and color-color diagrams. We estimate the background contamination to our stellar candidate lists and further classify candidates based on their appearance in $HST$ Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) observations of M83. We find 49 strong candidates for massive stars which are very promising objects for spectroscopic follow-up. Based on their location in a $B-V$ versus $V-I$ diagram, we expect at least 24, or roughly 50%, to be confirmed as red supergiants.Comment: 32 pages, 23 figures, accepted for publication in A&