547 research outputs found
The PASTEL catalogue of stellar parameters
The PASTEL catalogue is an update of the [Fe/H] catalogue, published in 1997
and 2001. It is a bibliographical compilation of stellar atmospheric parameters
providing (Teff,logg,[Fe/H]) determinations obtained from the analysis of high
resolution, high signal-to-noise spectra, carried out with model atmospheres.
PASTEL also provides determinations of the one parameter Teff based on various
methods. It is aimed in the future to provide also homogenized atmospheric
parameters and elemental abundances, radial and rotational velocities. A web
interface has been created to query the catalogue on elaborated criteria.
PASTEL is also distributed through the CDS database and VizieR. To make it as
complete as possible, the main journals have been surveyed, as well as the CDS
database, to find relevant publications. The catalogue is regularly updated
with new determinations found in the literature. As of Febuary 2010, PASTEL
includes 30151 determinations of either Teff or (Teff,logg,[Fe/H]) for 16649
different stars corresponding to 865 bibliographical references. Nearly 6000
stars have a determination of the three parameters (Teff,logg,[Fe/H]) with a
high quality spectroscopic metallicity.Comment: 5 pages, accepted for publication in A&A. The PASTEL catalogue can be
queried at http://pastel.obs.u-bordeaux1.fr/ or
http://vizier.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/VizieR?-source=B/paste
Gaia FGK Benchmark Stars: Effective temperatures and surface gravities
Large Galactic stellar surveys and new generations of stellar atmosphere
models and spectral line formation computations need to be subjected to careful
calibration and validation and to benchmark tests. We focus on cool stars and
aim at establishing a sample of 34 Gaia FGK Benchmark Stars with a range of
different metallicities. The goal was to determine the effective temperature
and the surface gravity independently from spectroscopy and atmospheric models
as far as possible. Fundamental determinations of Teff and logg were obtained
in a systematic way from a compilation of angular diameter measurements and
bolometric fluxes, and from a homogeneous mass determination based on stellar
evolution models. The derived parameters were compared to recent spectroscopic
and photometric determinations and to gravity estimates based on seismic data.
Most of the adopted diameter measurements have formal uncertainties around 1%,
which translate into uncertainties in effective temperature of 0.5%. The
measurements of bolometric flux seem to be accurate to 5% or better, which
contributes about 1% or less to the uncertainties in effective temperature. The
comparisons of parameter determinations with the literature show in general
good agreements with a few exceptions, most notably for the coolest stars and
for metal-poor stars. The sample consists of 29 FGK-type stars and 5 M giants.
Among the FGK stars, 21 have reliable parameters suitable for testing,
validation, or calibration purposes. For four stars, future adjustments of the
fundamental Teff are required, and for five stars the logg determination needs
to be improved. Future extensions of the sample of Gaia FGK Benchmark Stars are
required to fill gaps in parameter space, and we include a list of suggested
candidates.Comment: Accepted by A&A; 34 pages (printer format), 14 tables, 13 figures;
language correcte
The ELODIE archive
The ELODIE archive contains the complete collection of high-resolution
echelle spectra accumulated over the last decade using the ELODIE spectrograph
at the Observatoire de Haute-Provence 1.93-m telescope. This article presents
the different data products and the facilities available on the web to
re-process these data on-the-fly. Users can retrieve the data in FITS format
from http://atlas.obs-hp.fr/elodie and apply to them different functions:
wavelength resampling and flux calibration in particular.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures and 1 tabl
Kinematic parameters and membership probabilities of open clusters in the Bordeaux PM2000 catalogue
We derive lists of proper-motions and kinematic membership probabilities for
49 open clusters and possible open clusters in the zone of the Bordeaux PM2000
proper motion catalogue (). We test
different parametrisations of the proper motion and position distribution
functions and select the most successful one. In the light of those results, we
analyse some objects individually. The segregation between cluster and field
member stars, and the assignment of membership probabilities, is accomplished
by applying a new and fully automated method based on both parametrisations of
the proper motion and position distribution functions, and genetic algorithm
optimization heuristics associated with a derivative-based hill climbing
algorithm for the likelihood optimization. We present a catalogue comprising
kinematic parameters and associated membership probability lists for 49 open
clusters and possible open clusters in the Bordeaux PM2000 catalogue region. We
note that this is the first determination of proper motions for five open
clusters. We confirm the non-existence of two kinematic populations in the
region of 15 previously suspected non-existent objects.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, 4 tables. Accepted for publication in Astronomy
& Astrophysic
The catalog of radial velocity standard stars for the Gaia RVS: status and progress of the observations
A new full-sky catalog of Radial Velocity standard stars is being built for
the determination of the Radial Velocity Zero Point of the RVS on board of
Gaia. After a careful selection of 1420 candidates matching well defined
criteria, we are now observing all of them to verify that they are stable
enough over several years to be qualified as reference stars. We present the
status of this long-term observing programme on three spectrographs : SOPHIE,
NARVAL and CORALIE, complemented by the ELODIE and HARPS archives. Because each
instrument has its own zero-point, we observe intensively IAU RV standards and
asteroids to homogenize the radial velocity measurements. We can already
estimate that ~8% of the candidates have to be rejected because of variations
larger than the requested level of 300 m/s.Comment: Proceedings of SF2A2010, S. Boissier, M. Heydari-Malayeri, R. Samadi
and D. Valls-Gabaud (eds), 3 pages, 2 figure
On the kinematics of the neutron star low mass X-ray binary Cen X-4
We present the first determination of the proper motion of the neutron star
low mass X-ray binary {Cen X-4} measured from relative astrometry of the
secondary star using optical images at different epochs. We determine the
Galactic space velocity components of the system and find them to be
significantly different from the mean values that characterize the kinematics
of stars belonging to the halo, and the thin and the thick disc of the Galaxy.
The high metallicity of the secondary star of the system rules out a halo
origin and indicates that the system probably originated in the Galactic disc.
A statistical analysis of the galactocentric motion revealed that this binary
moves in a highly eccentric () orbit with an inclination of
to the Galactic plane. The large Galactic space velocity
components strongly support that a high natal kick as a result of a supernova
explosion could have propelled the system into such an orbit from a birth place
in the Galactic disc. The high Li abundance in the secondary, comparable to
that of stars in star forming regions and young stellar clusters like the
Pleiades, may suggest a relatively recent formation of the system. Following
the orbit backwards in time, we found that the system could have been in the
inner regions of the Galactic disc 100--200 Myr ago. The neutron star
might have formed at that moment. However, we cannot rule out the possibility
that the system formed at a much earlier time if a Li production mechanism
exists in this LMXB.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in A&
Spectroscopic ages and metallicities of stellar populations: validation of full spectrum fitting
Fitting whole spectra at intermediate spectral resolution (R = 1000 -- 3000),
to derive physical properties of stellar populations, appears as an optimized
alternative to methods based on spectrophotometric indices: it uses all the
redundant information contained in the signal. This paper addresses the
validation of the method and it investigates the quality of the population
models together with the reliability of the fitting procedures. We are using
two algorithms: STECKMAP, a non-parametric regularized program and NBURSTS a
parametric non-linear minimization. We compare three spectral synthesis models
for single stellar populations: Pegase-HR, Galaxev (BC03) and Vazdekis/Miles,
and we analyse spectra of Galactic clusters whose populations are known from
studies of color-magnitude diagrams (CMD) and spectroscopy of individual stars.
We find that: (1) The quality of the models critically depends on the stellar
library they use. Pegase-HR and Vazdekis/Miles are consistent, while the
comparison between Pegase-HR and BC03 shows some systematics reflecting the
limitations of the stellar library (STELIB) used to generate the latter models;
(2) The two fitting programs are consistent; (3) For globular clusters and M67
spectra, the method restitutes metallicities in agreement with spectroscopy of
stars within 0.14 dex; (4) The spectroscopic ages are very sensitive to the
presence of a blue horizontal branch (BHB) or of blue stragglers. A BHB
morphology results in a young SSP-equivalent age. Fitting a free amount of blue
stars in addition to the SSP model to mimic the BHB improves and stabilizes the
fit and restores ages in agreement with CMDs studies. This method is
potentially able to disentangle age or BHB effects in extragalactic clusters.Comment: accepted in MNRAS; Full version available at
http://www-obs.univ-lyon1.fr/labo/perso/prugniel/mina/koleva.pd
M2000 : an astrometric catalog in the Bordeaux Carte du Ciel zone +11 degrees < {delta} < +18 degrees
During four years, systematic observations have been conducted in drift scan
mode with the Bordeaux automated meridian circle in the declination band [+11 ;
+18]. The resulting astrometric catalog includes about 2 300 000 stars down to
the magnitude limit V_M=16.3. Nearly all stars (96%) have been observed at
least 6 times, the catalog being complete down to V_M=15.4. The median internal
standard error in position is about 35 mas in the V_M magnitude range [11 ;
15], which degrades to about 50 mas when the faintest stars are considered.
M2000 provides also one band photometry with a median internal standard error
of 0.04 mag. Comparisons with the Hipparcos and bright part of Tycho-2 catalogs
have enabled to estimate external errors in position to be lower than 40 mas.
In this zone and at epoch 1998, the faint part of Tycho-2 is found to have an
accuracy of 116 mas in alpha instead of 82 mas deduced from the model-based
standard errors given in the catalog.Comment: The catalogue can be fetched directly from:
ftp://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/cats/I/272 or queried from:
http://vizier.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/VizieR?-source=I/272 More information at :
http://www.observ.u-bordeaux.fr/~soubiran/m2000.ht
Testing the chemical tagging technique with open clusters
Context. Stars are born together from giant molecular clouds and, if we
assume that the priors were chemically homogeneous and well-mixed, we expect
them to share the same chemical composition. Most of the stellar aggregates are
disrupted while orbiting the Galaxy and most of the dynamic information is
lost, thus the only possibility of reconstructing the stellar formation history
is to analyze the chemical abundances that we observe today.
Aims. The chemical tagging technique aims to recover disrupted stellar
clusters based merely on their chemical composition. We evaluate the viability
of this technique to recover co-natal stars that are no longer gravitationally
bound.
Methods. Open clusters are co-natal aggregates that have managed to survive
together. We compiled stellar spectra from 31 old and intermediate-age open
clusters, homogeneously derived atmospheric parameters, and 17 abundance
species, and applied machine learning algorithms to group the stars based on
their chemical composition. This approach allows us to evaluate the viability
and efficiency of the chemical tagging technique.
Results. We found that stars at different evolutionary stages have distinct
chemical patterns that may be due to NLTE effects, atomic diffusion, mixing,
and biases. When separating stars into dwarfs and giants, we observed that a
few open clusters show distinct chemical signatures while the majority show a
high degree of overlap. This limits the recovery of co-natal aggregates by
applying the chemical tagging technique. Nevertheless, there is room for
improvement if more elements are included and models are improved.Comment: accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics. Corrected
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