A search for Maunder-minimum candidate stars

¹ Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP), An der Sternwarte 16, 14482 Potsdam, Germany
² Institut für Physik und Astronomie, Universität Potsdam, 14476 Potsdam, Germany

^★ Corresponding authors: sjarvinen@aip.de; kstrassmeier@aip.de

Received: 12 February 2025
Accepted: 10 April 2025

Abstract

Context. Stars with very low levels of magnetic activity provide an opportunity for a more quantitative comparison with the Sun during its Maunder minimum.

Aims. We employ spectra from the RAVE survey in a search for particularly low-activity stars with the goal of identifying candidates for so-called Maunder-minimum stars.

Methods. Spectra were used to measure the relative flux in the cores of the Ca II infrared-triplet (IRT) lines. Those were converted to absolute emission-line fluxes and were corrected with target fluxes from high-resolution STELLA and ultra-high-resolution PEPSI spectra.

Results. Absolute Ca II IRT fluxes for a total of 78 111 RAVE dwarf stars are presented and compared with fluxes of the 123 stars from our high-resolution STELLA+PEPSI sample. RAVE fluxes appear higher than the STELLA and PEPSI fluxes by on average 19% for IRT-1, 21% for IRT-2, and 25% for IRT-3 due to their lower spectral resolution. Our sample also spans a metallicity [Fe/H] range relative to the Sun of −1.5 to +0.5 dex. We confirm the strong dependency of IRT fluxes on metallicity and quantify it to be at most ±14% in the B–V range 0.53–0.73. Without a metallicity correction, practically all very-low-activity RAVE dwarfs show a super-solar metallicity. After correcting for spectral resolution and for metallicity, we find 13 RAVE stars out of 13326 (0.1%) that fall well below our empirical lower flux bound from high-resolution versus B–V. For solar B–V, this relates to a photospheric uncorrected radiative loss in the IRT lines of log R_IRT = −4.13 (≈20% below the solar-minimum value in late 2016). However, 11 targets turned out to be evolved stars based on their Gaia DR3 parallaxes.

Conclusions. Two stars, TIC 352227373 (G2V) and TYC 7560-477-1 (G7V), are our only Maunder-minimum candidates from the present search. Contrary to the initial suggestion from the Mount-Wilson H&K Survey, we conclude that such stars are very rare.