Metallicity, temperature, and gravity scales of M subdwarfs^⋆,⋆⋆

¹ Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), Calle Vía Láctea s/n, 38200 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
e-mail: nlodieu@iac.es
² Departamento de Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), 38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
³ Univ. Lyon, ENS de Lyon, Univ. Lyon1, CNRS, Centre de Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon UMR5574, 69007 Lyon, France
⁴ Visiting Professor at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
⁵ Departmento de Astrofísica, Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC-INTA), ESAC Campus, Camino Bajo del Castillo s/n, 286922 Villanueva de la Cañada, Spain
⁶ Spanish Virtual Observatory, 28692 Villanueva de la Cañada, Spain
⁷ Main Astronomical Observatory of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Ukraine
⁸ Center for Astrophysics Research, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield, Hertfordshire AL10 9AB, UK
⁹ Center for Astrophysics and Space Science, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
¹⁰ Georg-August-Universität Goettingen Institut für Astrophysik, Friedrich-Hund-Platz 1, 37077 Göttingen, Germany

Received: 18 February 2019
Accepted: 1 July 2019

Abstract

Aims. The aim of the project is to define metallicity/gravity/temperature scales for different spectral types of metal-poor M dwarfs.

Methods. We obtained intermediate-resolution ultraviolet (R ∼ 3300), optical (R ∼ 5400), and near-infrared (R ∼ 3900) spectra of 43 M subdwarfs (sdM), extreme subdwarfs (esdM), and ultra-subdwarfs (usdM) with the X-shooter spectrograph on the European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope. We compared our atlas of spectra to the latest BT-Settl synthetic spectral energy distribution over a wide range of metallicities, gravities, and effective temperatures to infer the physical properties for the whole M dwarf sequence (M0–M9.5) at sub-solar metallicities and constrain the latest atmospheric models.

Results. The BT-Settl models accurately reproduce the observed spectra across the 450–2500 nm wavelength range except for a few regions. We find that the best fits are obtained for gravities of log (g) = 5.0–5.5 for the three metal classes. We infer metallicities of [Fe/H] = −0.5, −1.5, and −2.0 ± 0.5 dex and effective temperatures of 3700–2600 K, 3800–2900 K, and 3700–2900 K for subdwarfs, extreme subdwarfs, and ultra-subdwarfs, respectively. Metal-poor M dwarfs tend to be warmer by about 200 ± 100 K and exhibit higher gravity than their solar-metallicity counterparts. We derive abundances of several elements (Fe, Na, K, Ca, Ti) for our sample but cannot describe their atmospheres with a single metallicity parameter. Our metallicity scale expands the current scales available for mildly metal-poor planet-host low-mass stars. Our compendium of moderate-resolution spectra covering the 0.45–2.5 micron range represents an important resource for large-scale surveys and space missions to come.