Measuring precise radial velocities on individual spectral lines. I. Validation of the method and application to mitigate stellar activity

Stellar activity is the main limitation to the detection of Earth-twins using the RV technique. Despite many efforts in trying to mitigate the effect of stellar activity using empirical and statistical techniques, it seems that we are facing an obstacle that will be extremely difficult to overcome using current techniques. In this paper, we investigate a novel approach to derive precise RVs considering the wealth of information present in high-resolution spectra. This new method consists in building a master spectrum from all observations and measure the RVs of each spectral line in a spectrum relative to it. When analysing several spectra, the final product is the RVs of each line as a function of time. We demonstrate on three stars intensively observed with HARPS that our new method gives RVs that are extremely similar to the ones derived from the HARPS data reduction software. Our new approach to derive RVs demonstrates that the non-stability of daily HARPS wavelength solution induces night-to-night RV offsets with an standard deviation of 0.4 m/s, and we propose a solution to correct for this systematic. Finally, and this is probably the most astrophysically relevant result of this paper, we demonstrate that some spectral lines are strongly affected by stellar activity while others are not. By measuring the RVs on two carefully selected subsample of spectral lines, we demonstrate that we can boost by a factor of 2 or mitigate by a factor of 1.6 the red noise induced by stellar activity in the 2010 RVs of Alpha Cen B. By measuring the RVs of each spectral line, we are able to reach the same RV precision as other approved techniques. In addition, this new approach allows to demonstrate that each line is differently affected by stellar activity. Preliminary results show that studying in details the behaviour of each spectral line is probably the key to overcome stellar activity.Comment: 14 pages (plus 8 pages of Appendix), 17 figures, 1 table, Accepted for publication in A&A. Version 2: typo corrected in Equation

Stellar noise and planet detection. I. Oscillations, granulation and sun-like spots

Spectrographs like HARPS can now reach a sub-ms−1 precision in radial-velocity (RV) (Pepe & Lovis 2008). At this level of accuracy, we start to be confronted with stellar noise produced by 3 different physical phenomena: oscillations, granulation phenomena (granulation, meso- and super-granulation) and activity. On solar type stars, these 3 types of perturbation can induce ms−1 RV variation, but on different time scales: 3 to 15 minutes for oscillations, 15 minutes to 1.5 days for granulation phenomena and 10 to 50 days for activity. The high precision observational strategy used on HARPS, 1 measure per night of 15 minutes, on 10 consecutive days each month, is optimized, due to a long exposure time, to average out the noise coming from oscillations (Dumusque et al. 2011a) but not to reduce the noise coming from granulation and activity (Dumusque et al. 2011a and Dumusque et al. 2011b). The smallest planets found with this strategy (Mayor et al. 2009) seems to be at the limit of the actual observational strategy and not at the limit of the instrumental precision. To be able to find Earth mass planets in the habitable zone of solar-type stars (200 days for a K0 dwarf), new observational strategies, averaging out simultaneously all type of stellar noise, are require

New wavelength calibration of the HARPS spectrograph

(abridged) Even if the HARPS spectrograph has been operational for more than 15 years and it provides among the most precise Doppler measurements, improvements are still possible. One known problem, for instance, is the non-fully regular block-stitching of the CCDs, which introduces, in some cases, one-year period parasitic signals in the measured radial velocity. The aim is to improve the wavelength calibration of HARPS to push further its planet-detection capabilities. The properties of the CCD stitching-induced pixel-size anomalies are determined with LED flat-field frames, and then a physical, gap-corrected map of the CCDs is used for the fitting model of the spectral orders. We also use a new thorium line list, based on much higher-accuracy measurements than the one used up to now. We derive new wavelength solutions for the 15 years of HARPS data, both before and after the 2015 fibre upgrade. We demonstrate that we correct the gap anomalies by computing the wavelength solutions of laser frequency comb exposures, both with and without taking the gap correction into account. By comparing the rms of the most stable stars of the HARPS sample, we show that we globally decrease the radial velocity dispersion of the data, especially for the data acquired after the change of fibres. Finally, the comparative analysis of several individual systems shows that we manage to attenuate the periodogram power at one year in most cases. The analysis of the RVs derived from individual stellar lines also shows that we correct the stitching-induced RV variation. This improved calibration of the HARPS spectrograph allows to go deeper in the search for low-amplitude radial-velocity signals. It will be further improved by combining the thorium calibration spectra with laser frequency comb and Fabry-Perot calibration spectra, and not only for HARPS but notably also for HARPS-N and ESPRESSO.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&

Stellar noise and planet detection. II. Radial-velocity noise induced by magnetic cycles

For the 451 stars of the HARPS high precision program, we study correlations between the radial-velocity (RV) variation and other parameters of the Cross Correlated Function (CCF). After a careful target selection, we found a very good correlation between the slope of the RV-activity index (log(R'HK)) correlation and the Teff for dwarf stars. This correlation allow us to correct RV from magnetic cycles given the activity index and the Tef

RASSINE: Interactive tool for normalising stellar spectra I. Description and performance of the code

Aims: We provide an open-source code allowing an easy, intuitive, and robust normalisation of spectra. Methods: We developed RASSINE, a Python code for normalising merged 1D spectra through the concepts of convex hulls. The code uses six parameters that can be easily fine-tuned. The code also provides a complete user-friendly interactive interface, including graphical feedback, that helps the user to choose the parameters as easily as possible. To facilitate the normalisation even further, RASSINE can provide a first guess for the parameters that are derived directly from the merged 1D spectrum based on previously performed calibrations. Results: For HARPS spectra of the Sun that were obtained with the HELIOS solar telescope, a continuum accuracy of 0.20% on line depth can be reached after normalisation with RASSINE. This is three times better than with the commonly used method of polynomial fitting. For HARPS spectra of $\alpha$ Cen B, a continuum accuracy of 2.0% is reached. This rather poor accuracy is mainly due to molecular band absorption and the high density of spectral lines in the bluest part of the merged 1D spectrum. When wavelengths shorter than 4500 \AA are excluded, the continuum accuracy improves by up to 1.2%. The line-depth precision on individual spectrum normalisation is estimated to be 0.15%, which can be reduced to the photon-noise limit (0.10%) when a time series of spectra is given as input for RASSINE. Conclusions: With a continuum accuracy higher than the polynomial fitting method and a line-depth precision compatible with photon noise, RASSINE is a tool that can find applications in numerous cases, for example stellar parameter determination, transmission spectroscopy of exoplanet atmospheres, or activity-sensitive line detection.Comment: 13 pages, 9 pages appendix, 9 figure

Spectral Line Depth Variability in Radial Velocity Spectra

Stellar active regions, including spots and faculae, can create radial velocity (RV) signals that interfere with the detection and mass measurements of low mass exoplanets. In doing so, these active regions affect each spectral line differently, but the origin of these differences is not fully understood. Here we explore how spectral line variability correlated with S-index (Ca H & K emission) is related to the atomic properties of each spectral line. Next we develop a simple analytic stellar atmosphere model that can account for the largest sources of line variability with S-index. Then we apply this model to HARPS spectra of {\alpha} Cen B to explain Fe I line depth changes in terms of a disk-averaged temperature difference between active and quiet regions on the visible hemisphere of the star. This work helps establish a physical basis for understanding how stellar activity manifests differently in each spectral line, and may help future work mitigating the impact of stellar activity on exoplanet RV surveys.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, submitted to The Astrophysical Journal, August 202