Issue |
A&A
Volume 671, March 2023
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A162 | |
Number of page(s) | 26 | |
Section | Stellar atmospheres | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201937306 | |
Published online | 22 March 2023 |
Absolute Ca II H & K and H-alpha flux measurements of low-mass stars: Extending R′HK to M dwarfs
1
Universität Göttingen, Institut für Astrophysik und Geophysik,
Friedrich-Hund-Platz 1,
37077
Göttingen, Germany
e-mail: chris.j.marvin@gmail.com
2
School of Physics and Astronomy, Queen Mary, University of London,
327 Mile End Rd.
London, UK
3
Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía,
Glorieta de la Astronomía 1,
18008
Granada, Spain
4
University of Vienna, Department of Astrophysics,
Türkenschanzstrasse 17,
1180
Vienna, Austria
5
Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung,
Justus-von-Liebig-Weg-3,
37077
Goettingen, Germany
Received:
12
December
2019
Accepted:
25
September
2022
Context. With the recent surge of planetary surveys focusing on detecting Earth-mass planets around M dwarfs, it is becoming more important to understand chromospheric activity in M dwarfs. Stellar chromospheric calcium emission is typically measured using the R′HK calibrations of Noyes et al. (1984), which are only valid for 0.44 ≤ B – V ≤ 0.82. Measurements of calcium emission for cooler dwarfs B – V ≥ 0.82 are difficult because of their intrinsic dimness in the blue end of the visible spectrum.
Aims. We measure the absolute Ca II H & K and Hα flux of a sample of 110 HARPS M dwarfs and also extend the calibration of R′HK to the M dwarf regime using PHOENIX stellar atmosphere models.
Methods. We normalized a template spectrum with a high signal-to-noise ratio that was obtained by coadding multiple spectra of the same star to a PHOENIX stellar atmosphere model to measure the chromospheric Ca II H & K and Ha flux in physical units. We used three different Teff calibrations and investigated their effect on Ca II H & K and Hα activity measurements. We performed conversions of the Mount Wilson S index to R′HK as a function of effective temperature for the range 2300 K ≤ Teff ≤ 7200 K. Last, we calculated continuum luminosity χ values for Ca II H & K and Hα in the same manner as West & Hawley (2008) for –1.0 ≤ [Fe/H] ≤ + 1.0 in steps of Δ [Fe/H] = 0.5.
Results. We compare different Teff calibrations and find ΔΤeff ~ several 100 K for mid- to late-M dwarfs. Using these different Teff calibrations, we establish a catalog of log R′HK and ℱ′Hα/ℱbol measurements for 110 HARPS M dwarfs. The difference between our results and the calibrations of Noyes et al. (1984) is Δ log R′HK = 0.01 dex for a Sun-like star. Our χ values agree well with those of West & Hawley (2008). We confirm that the lower boundary of chromospheric Ca II H and K activity does not increase toward later-M dwarfs: it either stays constant or decreases, depending on the Teff calibration used. We also confirm that for Ha, the lower boundary of chromospheric flux is in absorption for earlier -M dwarfs and fills into the continuum toward later M dwarfs.
Conclusions. We confirm that we can effectively measure R′HK in M dwarfs using template spectra with a high signal-to-noise ratio. We also conclude that our calibrations are a reliable extension of previous R′HK calibrations, and effective temperature calibration is the main source of error in our activity measurements.
Key words: stars: activity / stars: low-mass / stars: late-type / stars: chromospheres
© The Authors 2023
Open Access article, published by EDP Sciences, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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