Non-LTE radiative transfer with Turbospectrum

¹ Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
e-mail: gerber@mpia.de
² LUPM, Université de Montpellier, CNRS, Montpellier, France
³ Observational Astrophysics, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University, Box 516, 751 20 Uppsala, Sweden
⁴ Niels Bohr International Academy, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Blegdamsvej 17, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark

Received: 28 March 2022
Accepted: 28 June 2022

Abstract

Physically realistic models of stellar spectra are needed in a variety of astronomical studies, from the analysis of fundamental stellar parameters, to studies of exoplanets and stellar populations in galaxies. Here we present a new version of the widely used radiative transfer code Turbospectrum, which we update so that it is able to perform spectrum synthesis for lines of multiple chemical elements in non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE). We use the code in the analysis of metallicites and abundances of the Gaia FGK benchmark stars, using 1D MARCS atmospheric models and the averages of 3D radiation-hydrodynamics simulations of stellar surface convection. We show that the new more physically realistic models offer a better description of the observed data, and we make the program and the associated microphysics data publicly available, including grids of NLTE departure coefficients for H, O, Na, Mg, Si, Ca, Ti, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Sr, and Ba.