A&A 401, 997-1007 (2003)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20030163
G. Pace1,2 - L. Pasquini2 - S. Ortolani3
1 - Dipartimento di Astronomia, Università di Trieste,
via G. B. Tiepolo 11, 34131 Trieste, Italy
2 -
European Southern Observatory,
Karl Schwarzschild Strasse 2, 85748
Garching bei München, Germany
3 -
Dipartimento di Astronomia, Università di Padova,
Vicolo dell'Osservatorio 5, 35122 Padova, Italy
Received 12 July 2002 / Accepted 30 January 2003
Abstract
Wilson & Bappu (1957) have shown the existence of a remarkable correlation
between the width of the emission in the core of the K line of
Ca
and
the absolute visual magnitude of late-type stars.
Here we present a new calibration of the Wilson-Bappu effect based on a sample of 119 nearby stars. We use, for the first time, width measurements based on high resolution and high signal to noise ratio CCD spectra and absolute visual magnitudes from the Hipparcos database.
Our primary goal is to investigate the possibility of using the Wilson-Bappu effect to determine accurate distances to single stars and groups.
The result of our calibration fitting of the Wilson-Bappu relationship
is
,
and the determination seems free of systematic effects.
The root mean square error of the fitting
is 0.6 mag. This error is mostly accounted for by measurement
errors and intrinsic variability of W0, but in addition
a possible dependence on the metallicity is found, which becomes clearly
noticeable for metallicities below
.
This
detection is possible because in our sample [Fe/H] ranges from -1.5 to 0.4.
The Wilson-Bappu effect can be used
confidently for all metallicities not lower than
,
including the
LMC. While it does not provide accurate distances to single stars,
it is a useful tool to determine accurate distances to
clusters and aggregates, where a sufficient number of stars can be observed.
We apply the Wilson-Bappu effect to published data of the open cluster M 67; the retrieved distance modulus is of 9.65 mag, in very good agreement with the best distance estimations for this cluster, based on main sequence fitting.
Key words: stars: distances - stars: late-type - line: profiles
Since the discovery by Wilson & Bappu (1957) of the existence of a linear relationship
between the logarithm of the width of the Ca
emission
(W0) and the stellar absolute
visual magnitude (the so called Wilson-Bappu effect),
several calibrations of this effect have been attempted.
However the Wilson-Bappu relationship (WBR) has only seldom
been used to determine stellar distances to single stars or aggregates.
The reliability of past calibrations of the WBR has been limited by the lack of two crucial elements:
A new, reliable WBR determination is especially interesting since
new detectors and state of the art spectrographs can now produce
excellent Ca
data even for stars
in stellar clusters and associations as distant as several kiloparsecs.
For these clusters and associations, we could therefore apply the
WBR to derive their distance.
This possible application is the main ground of our effort to retrieve a
reliable calibration for the WBR.
The full sample for which spectra have been collected (data shown in Table 1) consists of 152 stars, but the present study is limited to stars with relative parallax errors smaller than 10%. We have also excluded from the original sample known multiple systems. After this trimming, the final sample includes 119 stars.
All the stars but the Sun are included in the Hipparcos catalogue, from which trigonometric parallaxes and visual magnitudes have been taken.
The absolute visual magnitude of the Sun has been taken from Hayes (1985).
Star | W0 [Å] |
![]() |
MV | Sp.Type | [Fe/H] |
![]() |
SUN | 0.49 | 0.030 | 4.82 | G2V | 0.00 | 1.6 |
HD 203244 | 0.47 | 0.030 | 5.42 | G5V | -0.21 | - |
HD 17051 | 0.62 | 0.030 | 4.22 | G0V | -0.04 | 5.7 |
HD 1273* | 0.5 | 0.030 | 5.03 | G2V ![]() |
-0.61 | - |
HD 20407 | 0.41 | 0.042 | 4.82 | G1V | -0.55 | - |
HD 20766 | 0.50 | 0.030 | 5.11 | G2.5V | -0.25 | - |
HD 20630 | 0.53 | 0.030 | 5.03 | G5Vvar | 0.11 | 4.6 |
HD 20807 | 0.44 | 0.036 | 4.83 | G1V | -0.21 | - |
HD 20794 | 0.43 | 0.030 | 5.35 | G8V | -0.38 | - |
HD 26491 | 0.50 | 0.058 | 4.54 | G3V | -0.23 | - |
HD 1581 | 0.49 | 0.15 | 4.56 | F9V | -0.20 | 3 |
HD 30495 | 0.55 | 0.030 | 4.87 | G3V | 0.11 | 3 |
HD 32778 | 0.42 | 0.030 | 5.28 | G0V | -0.61 | - |
HD 34721 | 0.60 | 0.032 | 3.98 | G0V | -0.25 | - |
HD 36435 | 0.48 | 0.030 | 5.53 | G6-G8V | -0.02 | 4.5 |
HD 39587 | 0.56 | 0.030 | 4.70 | G0V | 0.08 | 9.3 |
HD 43834 | 0.51 | 0.036 | 5.05 | G6V | 0.01 | 1.8 |
HD 48938 | 0.53 | 0.042 | 4.31 | G2V | -0.47 | - |
HD 3443 | 0.47 | 0.036 | 4.61 | K1V | -0.16 | 2.7 |
HD 53705 | 0.60 | 0.036 | 4.51 | G3V | -0.30 | - |
HD 3795 | 0.46 | 0.030 | 3.86 | G3-G5V | -0.73 | - |
HD 63077 | 0.41 | 0.032 | 4.45 | G0V | -0.90 | - |
HD 3823 | 0.60 | 0.042 | 3.86 | G1V | -0.35 | 3 |
HD 64096* | 0.50 | 0.030 | 4.05 | G2V ![]() |
- | - |
HD 65907 | 0.52 | 0.050 | 4.54 | G0V | -0.36 | - |
HD 67458 | 0.47 | 0.036 | 4.76 | G4IV-V | -0.24 | - |
HD 74772 | 0.89 | 0.032 | -0.17 | G5III | -0.03 | 5.8 |
HD 202457 | 0.61 | 0.036 | 4.13 | G5V | -0.14 | - |
HD 202560 | 0.35 | 0.030 | 8.71 | M1-M2V ![]() |
- | - |
HD 202628 | 0.55 | 0.030 | 4.87 | G2V | -0.14 | - |
HD 202940* | 0.6 | 0.030 | 5.20 | G5V | -0.38 | 1.2 |
HD 211415 | 0.48 | 0.032 | 4.69 | G3V | -0.36 | 1.7 |
HD 211998 | 0.47 | 0.036 | 2.98 | A3V | -1.50 | - |
HD 212330 | 0.51 | 0.067 | 3.75 | G3IV | 0.14 | 1.8 |
HD 212698 | 0.54 | 0.030 | 4.04 | G3V | 0.08 | 9.7 |
HD 14412 | 0.40 | 0.042 | 5.81 | G5V | -0.53 | - |
HD 14802 | 0.62 | 0.032 | 3.48 | G2V | 0.10 | 3 |
HD 104304 | 0.55 | 0.036 | 4.99 | G9IV | 0.17 | 1.7 |
HD 114613 | 0.56 | 0.030 | 3.29 | G3V ![]() |
- | 2.7 |
HD 11695 | 1.02 | 0.030 | -0.57 | M4III ![]() |
- | - |
HD 194640 | 0.46 | 0.032 | 5.17 | G6-G8V ![]() |
- | - |
HD 20610* | 0.86 | 0.032 | 0.39 | K0III | -0.07 | - |
HD 209100 | 0.39 | 0.030 | 6.89 | K4.5V | 0.14 | 0.7 |
HD 211038 | 0.56 | 0.032 | 3.64 | K0-K1V | - | - |
HD 219215 | 1.03 | 0.030 | 0.05 | M2III ![]() |
- | - |
HD 29503* | 0.80 | 0.030 | 1.23 | K0III | -0.11 | - |
HD 35162 | 0.86 | 0.042 | 0.28 | G8-K0II-III | -0.31 | - |
Star | W0 [Å] |
![]() |
MV | Sp.Type | [Fe/H] |
![]() |
HD 36079* | 0.92 | 0.030 | -0.63 | G5II | -0.20 | 5.1 |
HD 4128 | 0.94 | 0.032 | -0.30 | K0III | -0.01 | 3.3 |
HD 43455 | 1.05 | 0.032 | -1.55 | M2.5III ![]() |
- | - |
HD 4398 | 0.82 | 0.032 | 0.44 | G8-K0III ![]() |
- | - |
HD 102212 | 1.01 | 0.067 | -0.87 | M0III ![]() |
- | - |
HD 111028 | 0.72 | 0.036 | 2.40 | K1III-IV | -0.40 | 1.5 |
HD 112300 | 1.04 | 0.030 | -0.57 | M3III | -0.09 | - |
HD 113226 | 0.94 | 0.030 | 0.37 | G8IIIvar | 0.04 | 2.8 |
HD 114038 | 0.89 | 0.030 | 0.29 | K1III | -0.04 | - |
HD 115202 | 0.66 | 0.030 | 2.26 | K1III ![]() |
- | - |
HD 115659 | 0.92 | 0.030 | -0.04 | G8III | -0.03 | 4.2 |
HD 117818 | 0.81 | 0.032 | 0.67 | K0III | -0.40 | - |
HD 119149* | 1.15 | 0.030 | -0.70 | M2III ![]() |
- | - |
HD 120477 | 0.90 | 0.032 | -0.33 | K5.5IIIvar | -0.23 | 2.2 |
HD 121299 | 0.83 | 0.032 | 0.70 | K2III | -0.03 | - |
HD 123123 | 0.83 | 0.030 | 0.79 | K2III ![]() |
-0.05 | - |
HD 124294 | 0.95 | 0.030 | 0.00 | K2.5IIIb | -0.45 | - |
HD 125454 | 0.82 | 0.030 | 0.52 | G8III | -0.22 | - |
HD 126868 | 0.77 | 0.030 | 1.72 | G2III ![]() |
- | 14.3 |
HD 129312* | 1.04 | 0.030 | -1.37 | G7IIvar | -0.30 | 6.5 |
HD 130952 | 0.88 | 0.030 | 0.82 | G8III | -0.29 | - |
HD 133165 | 0.83 | 0.032 | 0.64 | K0.5IIIb | -0.22 | - |
HD 136514 | 0.85 | 0.030 | 0.98 | K3IIIvar | -0.14 | 0.6 |
HD 138716 | 0.68 | 0.032 | 2.30 | K1IV | -0.13 | 2.5 |
HD 140573 | 0.88 | 0.030 | 0.87 | K2IIIb | 0.14 | 1.4 |
HD 141680 | 0.82 | 0.032 | 0.68 | G8III | -0.28 | 1.1 |
HD 145001* | 0.94 | 0.050 | -0.37 | G8III | -0.26 | 9.9 |
HD 145206* | 1.00 | 0.032 | -0.51 | K4III | 0.04 | 3.2 |
HD 146051 | 1.12 | 0.030 | -0.85 | M0.5III | 0.32 | - |
HD 146791 | 0.83 | 0.030 | 0.64 | G9.5IIIb | -0.13 | - |
HD 148349* | 0.90 | 0.030 | -0.71 | M2 ![]() |
- | - |
HD 148513* | 1.10 | 0.036 | -0.15 | K4III | -0.14 | 0.6 |
HD 150416* | 1.04 | 0.030 | -0.48 | G8II-III | +0.04 | - |
HD 151217 | 1.00 | 0.032 | 0.00 | K5IIIvar | -0.11 | 2.3 |
HD 152334 | 0.98 | 0.030 | 0.30 | K4III ![]() |
- | - |
HD 152601 | 0.82 | 0.030 | 0.82 | K2III | 0.00 | - |
HD 161096 | 0.91 | 0.030 | 0.76 | K2III | 0.05 | 2.7 |
HD 164349* | 1.17 | 0.030 | -1.84 | K0.5IIb | -0.32 | - |
HD 165760 | 0.91 | 0.095 | 0.33 | G8III | -0.15 | 2.2 |
HD 168723 | 0.67 | 0.030 | 1.84 | K0III-IV | -0.10 | 2.6 |
HD 169156* | 0.77 | 0.030 | 0.82 | G9IIIb | -0.17 | - |
HD 169767 | 0.74 | 0.030 | 1.15 | G8-K0III ![]() |
- | - |
HD 170493 | 0.44 | 0.030 | 6.67 | K3V ![]() |
- | 3.5 |
HD 171443 | 0.98 | 0.030 | 0.21 | K3III | 0.09 | 1.8 |
HD 171967* | 1.10 | 0.032 | -1.57 | M2III ![]() |
- | - |
HD 173009* | 1.11 | 0.032 | -1.14 | G8IIb | 0.05 | 6.0 |
HD 173764* | 1.80 | 0.036 | -2.40 | G4IIa | -0.15 | 6.5 |
HD 175775* | 1.07 | 0.030 | -1.76 | G8-K0II-III | -0.19 | - |
HD 176678 | 0.84 | 0.032 | 0.73 | K1IIIvar | -0.19 | - |
HD 177565 | 0.51 | 0.030 | 4.98 | G5IV | 0.03 | - |
HD 17970 | 0.44 | 0.050 | 6.01 | K1V ![]() |
- | - |
HD 181391* | 0.77 | 0.030 | 1.61 | G8III | -0.21 | 2.8 |
HD 182572 | 0.60 | 0.032 | 4.27 | G8IV | 0.38 | 2.3 |
HD 183630* | 1.02 | 0.050 | -0.90 | M1IIvar ![]() |
- | - |
Star | W0 [Å] |
![]() |
MV | Sp.Type | [Fe/H] |
![]() |
HD 184406 | 0.79 | 0.030 | 1.80 | K3IIIb | 0.05 | 1.3 |
HD 186791* | 1.32 | 0.030 | -3.02 | K3II | 0.00 | 3.5 |
HD 188310 | 0.91 | 0.032 | 0.73 | G9IIIb | -0.32 | 2 |
HD 189319 | 1.13 | 0.030 | -1.11 | K5III ![]() |
- | - |
HD 190248 | 0.54 | 0.030 | 4.62 | G7IV | -0.26 | - |
HD 190406 | 0.49 | 0.030 | 4.56 | G1V ![]() |
- | 5 |
HD 191408 | 0.38 | 0.030 | 6.41 | K2V ![]() |
- | 0.1 |
HD 194013 | 0.75 | 0.032 | 0.91 | G8III-IV | -0.03 | 1 |
HD 195135 | 0.88 | 0.036 | 1.07 | K2III | 0.03 | - |
HD 196574* | 0.86 | 0.030 | -1.04 | G8III | -0.13 | 3.7 |
HD 196758 | 0.89 | 0.036 | 0.77 | K1III | -0.12 | 1.8 |
HD 196761 | 0.42 | 0.030 | 5.53 | G8-K0V ![]() |
- | - |
HD 198026* | 1.03 | 0.030 | -1.24 | M3IIIvar ![]() |
- | - |
HD 201381 | 0.73 | 0.032 | 1.00 | G8III | -0.15 | 2.8 |
HD 203504 | 0.86 | 0.030 | 0.71 | K1III | -0.14 | 1.2 |
HD 205390 | 0.41 | 0.030 | 6.30 | K2V ![]() |
- | - |
HD 206067 | 0.87 | 0.032 | 0.76 | K0III | -0.17 | 1 |
HD 206453 | 0.82 | 0.030 | -0.03 | G8III | -0.20 | - |
HD 206778* | 1.78 | 0.030 | -4.19 | K2Ibvar | -0.05 | 6.5 |
HD 209747 | 1.06 | 0.030 | 0.32 | K4III | 0.00 | 2.3 |
HD 209750* | 2.14 | 0.030 | -3.88 | G2Ib | 0.18 | 6.7 |
HD 211931* | 0.86 | 0.030 | 1.03 | A1V ![]() |
- | - |
HD 212943 | 0.78 | 0.030 | 1.33 | K0III | -0.33 | 0.6 |
HD 213042 | 0.44 | 0.030 | 6.71 | K4V ![]() |
- | - |
HD 2151 | 0.62 | 0.030 | 3.45 | G2IVvar | -0.18 | 3 |
HD 216032* | 1.03 | 0.030 | -1.28 | K5II ![]() |
- | - |
HD 217357 | 0.33 | 0.030 | 8.33 | K5-M0V ![]() |
- | - |
HD 21749 | 0.38 | 0.030 | 7.01 | K5V ![]() |
- | - |
HD 217580 | 0.45 | 0.036 | 6.34 | K4V ![]() |
- | 3.6 |
HD 218329 | 1.12 | 0.030 | -0.43 | M2III ![]() |
- | - |
HD 220339 | 0.42 | 0.030 | 6.35 | K2V ![]() |
- | 5.5 |
HD 220954 | 0.86 | 0.030 | 0.83 | K1III | -0.10 | 0.6 |
HD 27274 | 0.41 | 0.030 | 7.06 | K5V ![]() |
- | - |
HD 32450 | 0.33 | 0.030 | 8.66 | M0V ![]() |
- | - |
HD 42581 | 0.30 | 0.030 | 9.34 | M1-M2V ![]() |
- | 3 |
HD 4747 | 0.46 | 0.030 | 5.78 | G8-K0V ![]() |
- | - |
HD 56855* | 1.76 | 0.030 | -4.91 | K3Ib ![]() |
- | - |
HD 59717* | 1.05 | 0.030 | -0.50 | K5III ![]() |
- | - |
HD 68290* | 0.84 | 0.030 | 0.95 | K0III | -0.03 | - |
HD 73840* | 1.01 | 0.030 | -0.56 | K3III | -0.21 | - |
HD 74918* | 0.73 | 0.030 | 0.11 | G8III | -0.20 | - |
HD 75691 | 0.96 | 0.030 | -0.01 | K3III | -0.11 | - |
HD 78647 | 1.65 | 0.030 | -3.99 | K4Ib-IIvar | 0.23 | 8.9 |
HD 81101 | 0.82 | 0.030 | 0.62 | G6III ![]() |
- | - |
HD 82668 | 1.21 | 0.361 | -1.15 | K5III ![]() |
- | - |
HD 85444 | 0.93 | 0.030 | -0.50 | G6-G8III | -0.14 | 2.9 |
HD 90432 | 1.04 | 0.030 | -1.15 | K4III | -0.12 | - |
HD 93813 | 0.96 | 0.030 | -0.03 | K0-K1II | -0.32 | - |
HD 95272 | 0.90 | 0.030 | 0.44 | K1III | -0.15 | - |
HD 9540 | 0.50 | 0.030 | 5.52 | K0V ![]() |
- | - |
HD 98430 | 0.89 | 0.030 | -0.31 | K0III | -0.40 | 1.8 |
The observations were obtained between
November 1988 and September
1996, at ESO, La Silla, with the Coudé Echelle Spectrometer,
at the focus of the Coudé Auxiliary Telescope.
The resolution is R=60 000 and the S/N ratio ranges from 30 to
100 at the bottom of the line (for more details about the
first spectra see Pasquini 1992).
![]() |
Figure 1:
Doubtful examples of Ca
![]() |
Open with DEXTER |
For 30 stars, multiple spectra were taken, and for
the Sun 9 spectra are available.
Spectral types and metallicities were obtained from the Cayrel de Strobel et al. (1997) catalogue. For the stars not included in this catalogue, spectral types are taken from the Hipparcos database. The projected rotation velocities are from Glebocki et al. (2000).
W0 has been computed as the difference in wavelength between the two points taken at the intensity equal to the average between those of the K1 minimum and K2 peak on either side of the emission profile (see Fig. 2).
We found that the definition of W0 which we have adopted correlates better with MV than two other widths also measured:
We notice that our definition of W0 differs slightly from others used in the literature. Wilson & Bappu (1957) define W as the difference in wavelength between the red edge and the violet edge of the emission profile. They apply to the measured value in the spectra a linear correction: W0= W - 15 km s-1. Wilson (1959) kept the original definition but applied a revised correction: 18 km s-1 instead of 15. Lutz (1970) introduced a new definition of W0, defining it as the width at half of the maximum of the emission profile. Lutz's definition is very similar to ours with the exception that we found the our definition easier to use in case of difficult spectra and more robust (see below).
W0 measurements are subject, of course, to measurement errors. For each
star we have computed an accuracy qualifier,
,
in the following
way. For the stars with two or more spectra available we derived it as the
half of the
difference between the largest and smallest measured widths. For stars
with only one available spectrum, we measured W0 with multiple methods,
and took the difference between the extrema of the measurements.
Then we added quadratically to this value (which in some cases was 0)
that of the Sun (0.030 Å), whose W0 measurements variations are
supposed to be caused only by the intrinsic variation of
the line width and by the limit of the resolution power of the spectrograph.
We have used
as an estimate of the mean error in W0.
The standard error of
(where W0 is
in km s-1) for each star, is retrieved applying the propagation of the mean
error.
Independent of the signal to noise ratio, for some stars it is intrinsically more difficult to measure W0. This is because their spectra show asymmetric self absorption, either produced by interstellar lines or by blueshifted winds or cosmic rays. Inactive, low luminosity stars will typically show shallow reversals, which are more difficult to measure.
Some of the most doubtful examples and difficult cases are presented in Fig. 1, in order to make the reader acquainted with the spectra and the possible error sources. In some cases, when strong blending was present or the profile was highly asymmetric, we have measured W0 by doubling the value measured for the "clean'' half of the line. Anyway, the majority of the spectra we dealt with were as good as the one showed in Fig. 2.
We have also computed the standard error on the absolute magnitude of each star. This error has two components: the mean error on the apparent visual magnitude (which is, in most of the cases, negligible) and the error given by the uncertainty in the parallax, which has to be computed via the propagation of the error.
The fit of the WBR was performed by means of the IDL routine "fitexy'', which implements the algorithm described in Press et al. (1989). The algorithm fits a straight line to a set of data points by taking into accounts errors on both coordinates.
We repeated the solution by rejecting stars not passing -,
- or
-criteria. The results so obtained are presented
in Table 2.
It is fundamental to note that, independent of the different sigma clipping
criterion used, the solutions found are extremely stable, giving the
same fit to within .
We adopt in the following:
(W0 is in km s-1) obtained rejecting HD 63077 and HD 211998,
with a standard deviation:
mag.
The two rejected stars are the most metal poor of the sample,
which we will argue
in Sect. 5.5 is the most likely cause of their large
residuals.
Hereafter we indicate with MV(K) the value of MV derived
for a single star from its W0 via the WBR.
In Fig. 3 the
vs. MV diagram is shown, with the
error bars representing standard errors in both
coordinates. The calibration line retrieved is also plotted.
![]() |
Figure 2: Spectrum of HD 4128. Most of the spectra of our sample have a comparable quality. |
Open with DEXTER |
We note here that such measurements are based on the definition of W given in Wilson & Bappu (1957), corrected for instrumental broadening as in Wilson (1959) (see Sect. 3). So the quantity W0 which they adopt is not exactly the same as ours, although the two quantities are expected to be strongly correlated.
WMPG used a linear least squares fitting both not weighted
and weighted only in absolute magnitude with
.
As WMPG advised, using weighted least squares means giving more
weight to the lowest part of the diagram, containing the dwarfs that
are, on the average, much closer, and therefore with smaller measurement
errors on parallaxes.
Using the weight for both the coordinates, as we did, does not produce to
the same effect, because at the same time the dwarfs have also smaller
W0, and so larger relative measurement errors, i.e. larger
standard errors for
.
In Fig. 4 we show the comparison of our calibration and the
weighted calibration of WMPG.
criterion | Number of stars | Number of | Final result | ||
rejected | iterations | a | b |
![]() |
|
![]() |
2 | 2 | 33.2 | -18.0 | 0.60 |
![]() |
5 | 3 | 33.5 | -18.3 | 0.56 |
![]() |
16 | 9 | 33.6 | -18.3 | 0.49 |
![]() |
In order to investigate how much
of this discrepancy is due to the differences in W0 measurements,
we compared, for the 64 stars common to the two data sets, the W0measurements of WMPG and ours.
Actually 20 of these stars are among the 33 not used in
our WBR computation, but for the present comparison this is irrelevant.
The two sets of measurements show, as expected, a very strong linear
correlation: the slope of the
vs.
linear
fitting is very much closed to unity: 1.003, with an intercept of
-5.34 km s-1 (see Fig. 5).
If we subtract 5.34 km s-1 to our W0 measurements, we obtain a data
set homogeneous to that of
WMPG, and performing the fitting with the new values gives
following WBR:
.
This result matches very well that of WMPG, as it can be seen from Fig. 4.
We conlcude that the reliability of the WBR is excellent, and that the
only reason
for the discrepancy between the calibrations is the difference in the
definition of W0.
On the other hand we notice that care is needed in measuring W0: its definition, and possibly the resolution of the spectra used shoud be the same as those of the calibration adopted.
The fact that the difference between our and WMPG's measurements is
about 5 km s-1, quite similar to the projected slit width for R=60 000,
could suggest that the instrumental profile should indeed be linearly
subtracted by
our W0 measurements to obtain an-instrument free calibration.
![]() |
Figure 3:
Our calibration of the Wilson-Bappu Effect:
![]() ![]() |
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![]() |
Figure 4:
Comparison between the following calibrations:
the present paper's one (
![]() ![]() ![]() |
Open with DEXTER |
We do not believe that this is the case, because:
![]() |
Figure 5: Comparison between our measurements of W0 and those used by WMPG. |
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For sake of completeness, we remind that the WBR is also valid for
the k-line of the Mg
,
and that the best calibration to date
is the one of Cassatella et al. (2001), which also uses
Hipparcos data and IUE spectra. Their result
is:
.
The spread around the WBR is still too large to consider it as a reliable distance indicator for single stars. The question we are now going to investigate in this section is if the WBR is suitable to determine the distance of clusters of stars. A necessary condition which such clusters have to satisfy is, of course, that for a sufficient number of members, a high quality spectrum, showing a clear double reversal profile of the K-line, is available.
The possibility of using the WBR to determine accurate cluster distances is strictly related to the causes of the scatter: whether or not it is due to entirely random errors or systematic effects. Among the possible causes of scatter, we mention:
White & Livingston (1981) observed the chromospheric emission of the K line
of the sun during a whole solar cycle. They found a maximum variation
of
of about 0.05 during such a period. If we assume that most
of the stars are affected by a variation of
of the same order of
magnitude, the amount of scatter introduced by the cyclic variation of the
chromospheric activity would represent a relevant fraction of the spread
observed in the data. Nevertheless, this variability cannot fully explain
the observed root mean square error of the WBR fitting. With typical
uncertainities in W0 due to measurement errors and natural variations of
the stellar line width of about 0.036 Å (cf. Table 1), this error, for stars
with intermediate widths, say W0= 0.8 Å, accounts for
about 0.35 mag of
mag. Therefore, it is necessary to
investigate further reasons of uncertainty in the determination of the WBR.
Among possible causes of biases we should consider reddening, the LKE Lutz & Kelker (1973, hereafter LKP), instrumental effects and the presence of multiple systems.
Resolution | W0 [Å] |
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R=110 000 | 0.923 | 0.887 | 0.922 |
R=80 000 | 0.915 | 0.866 | 0.914 |
R=60 000 | 0.925 | 0.859 | 0.923 |
R=60 000 | 0.918 | 0.852 | 0.916 |
R=40 000 | 0.929 | 0.831 | 0.924 |
R=30 000 | 0.953 | 0.822 | 0.944 |
Variance |
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The LKE is the bias due to the fact that
a symmetric error interval
around the estimated parallax
,
does not correspond to a symmetric error
interval in distances around
.
The inner spherical corona
centred in the Sun having radii
and
,
has a volume smaller than the outer spherical corona. So,
assuming a homogeneous space density for the stars, we expect that, for a
fixed measured parallax, stars having a true distance greater than
,
i.e. those
in the outer corona, will outnumber the stars having a distance smaller than
.
There is therefore a systematic trend to underestimate
distances. The correction which has to be applied to each star, has been
calculated in LKP. It depends only on the relative
error
.
Our sample has been selected to include only stars with
(
). Furthermore, out of the
119 stars, only 7 have
exceeding 0.075. For these values the LKE
is negligible compared with other errors involved: 0.06 mag for
and 0.11 mag for
(See Table 1 in LKP).
The most distant star, HD 43455, has a distance of 205 pc, and it is the only one for which we were not able to find out a secure upper limit to the reddening.
HD 78647 has a distance of 176 pc, and a galactic latitude
lower than 7.6,
so we can get a rough estimation of its reddening on
Neckel & Klare's maps (Neckel et al. 1980). For this star, AV does not
exceed
0.1 mag.
The remaining stars are within 107 pc. According to Sfeir et al. (1999) (see
their Fig. 2) the upper limit of the equivalent width of the D2
Na
line for such a distance is 200 mÅ. From this quantity we can
get the Hydrogen column density (Welsh et al. 1994):
,
which yields a colour excess:
,
or an upper limit for AV of about 0.1 mag.
Furthermore, 100 of the 119 stars in this sample, are within 75 parsec, so they are in the so called Local Bubble (see e.g. Sfeir et al. 1999), and they are not affected by detectable extinction.
The measured W0 is likely larger than the intrisic one because of
the broadening introduced by the spectrograph. The larger the projected
slit width is the stronger the intrumental broadening will be.
We have shown in Sect. 4, by means of data in Table 3,
that a linear correction for instrumental broadening (i.e. subtracting
the projected slit width from W0) would not be appropriate. Similar
results were found by Lutz (1970), who concluded that a quadratical
correction should be used.
To minimize this effect, our calibration is based on high
resolution spectra (the projected slit width is about 0.066 Å or 5 km s-1),
and appling a quadratic correction even to the smallest W0
value (that of HD 42581, 0.30 Å) we would obtain:
Å,
well below its estimated measurement error, i.e.
Å.
For larger values of W0,
is even smaller.
Hence, the quadratical correction is negligible for all stars in our sample.
We believe that the quadratical correction is more appropriate
than the linear one, and it should be applyied when dealing with low
resolution spectra, but it is not certain that such a small adjustment
would represent
a real improvement when dealing with data of resolution comparable to that
used in this work.
![]() |
Figure 6: The spectral type diagram vs. O-C. The spectral types are indexed as in Parsons (2001): 0 is for G0 stars, 1 for G1 and so on. Only luminous stars are plotted (no IV and V luminosity classes). |
Open with DEXTER |
Parsons (2001), analysing the calibration of WMPG,
suggested a trend for high luminosity stars that our data seem not to
confirm:
he suggested that O-C (i.e. the difference between the absolute magnitude
from Hipparcos parallax and the one retrieved by means of the WBR)
increases with increasing
for spectral
types earlier than
K3, while the opposite is true for the other stars.
He also concludes that this trend gets stronger for brighter stars.
According to Fig. 6, while we can draw no conclusions for
late type stars, our data seem to suggest a trend opposite to that proposed
by Parsons (2001) for spectral types earlier than
K3.
![]() |
Figure 7: The O-C vs. [Fe/H] diagrams both for all stars of the sample with available metallicities (on the left) and for metal poor stars only. On the latter is also shown the retrieved regression line, which has a slope as high as 2.61. |
Open with DEXTER |
The most obvious hidden parameter to search for is projected rotational
velocity. High rotational velocity can influence W0 in several ways,
either because fast rotating stars will tend to be more active
(see e.g. Cutispoto et al. 2002), or because the
width of the line core may be modified by the higher rotational velocity
(see e.g. Pasquini et al. 1989).
We have 53 stars for which
is available, and none are
really fast rotators, only for one object
exceeds
10 km s-1.
Our conclusion is that, among slow rotators, there is hardly any
dependence of the residuals on
:
we find a correlation
coefficient of 0.12.
We have finally searched for a dependence of the O-C on metallicity.
Such a dependence can also be expected, considering that
in stars having lower abundances the core of the line may sample different
layers of the atmosphere.
In particular we have checked
whether the WBR is still valid for very metal poor stars.
Figure 7 shows two O-C vs. [Fe/H] diagrams: the one on the
left refers to all the
stars with available metallicities, in the other diagram only stars with
are plotted.
A weak but not negligible dependence of the WBR on metallicity
does exist, and it gets much stronger for metal poor stars.
The correlation coefficient is 0.64, and it becomes 0.82 when the 19
most metal poor stars are considered, as shown on the right panel of
Fig. 7.
19 stars are too few to obtain any firm quantitative conclusions. In particular, the O-C vs. [Fe/H] relationship, to which they would point out (the straight line in right panel of Fig. 7), should be further investigated by means of a richer sample. The existence of such a relationship for metal poor stars has been independently suggested by Dupree & Smith (1995), who studied 53 metal poor giants, none of which is in our sample.
We think that the WBR
should be applied very carefully
to very metal poor stars (e.g. stars more metal poor
than
)
and that further metal poor calibrators should be observed before applying
it to very metal poor clusters.
After deriving the WBR, and showing that the scatter is mostly due to
random errors, we have the opportunity to test
it on a group of stars belonging to a well studied open cluster.
M 67 Ca
spectra were published by Dupree et al. (1999)
(see Figs. 2-4 therein) for 15 stars
on the RGB and clump region, and they are suitable for our analysis
of the WBR.
Andrea Dupree kindly provided us with all the spectra in digital form.
Since M 67 has been extensively studied,
the retrieved distance modulus can be compared with values obtained
from other authors.
Carraro et al. (1996) provide a detailed study of M 67. They derive,
on the basis of the Colour Magnitude Diagram,
mag.
Montgomery et al. (1993) performed a photometric survey of the central region of
M 67. They compared their photometry with two theoretical isochrones
to retrieve distance modulus and age for M 67.
From V, B-V CMDs, they found
(m-M)V=9.60
for both isochrones (but different ages were found), they have also used a
V,V-I CMD, giving
(m-M)V=9.85.
Dinescu et al. (1995) found
mag, obtained by letting
EB-V varying between its upper (0.06 mag) and lower (0.03 mag) limits.
Their isochrones were constructed using model atmospheres with new
opacities.
In Montgomery et al. (1993) other results from the literature are reported,
ranging from 9.55 to 9.61.
In summary, all distance modulus determinations for M 67 are in the range
mag.
M 67 is a solar metallicity cluster, so we do not need to take care of the metallicity effect which may affect the WBR. The W0 measurements were performed in the same way as for the calibration stars, and the results are given in Table 4. Out of the 15 stars of the original sample we have selected a subsample of 10, which suitable spectra were available, either for quality or clearness of the core reversal. In fact some of the spectra do not show a clear unambiguously recognisable double reversal feature, so that the measurement is unreliable. We did not use the stars with the following Sanders ID numbers (Sanders 1977): 258, 989, 1074, 1316, 1279. Even among the 10 selected stars some show a clearer profile than others, and for four of them the measurements were more uncertain (of the order of 0.1 Å) and they have been flagged with an asterisk in Table 4.
We have to consider that M 67 spectra were acquired for other purposes, and in
particular they have lower resolution and lower S/N ratio than
the typical calibration spectra, so we
expect a standard error on the single measurement higher than the
derived above.
In Table 4 the distance modulus determinations for the single
stars retrieved by means of the WBR are given. They range from 8.1 to 10.9
mag. The mean value is 9.7.
In spite of the poorer quality of the spectra, all the deviation can be
explained on the base of the intrinsic spread around the WBR.
For sake of accuracy we have also taken into account the effect of the difference in resolution between the calibration spectra and the M 67 observations (5 and 11 km s-1 respectively). A simple, quadratic correction for the difference between the two projected slit widths is applied in the sixth column of Table 4. The correction does not change the result in an appreciable way.
When considering all stars a simple mean gives (M-m)=9.62 mag; which becomes 9.65 when discarding the 4 most uncertain measurements.
We expect that the standard error in our determination of the distance of M 67
would be about:
if we used 6 spectra of quality similar to
those used for our calibration (
if we had 10
spectra of the same quality).
Trying to push further this application would definitely represent a gross over interpretation of the data, however we find it extremely interesting and encouraging that a simple application, using published data, can provide a distance modulus in the range between 9.5 and 9.8, in excellent agreement with completely independent measurements, such as those obtained with main sequence model fitting.
Sanders ID | W0(Å) | mV | MV(K) | (m-M)V | (m-M)V |
no corr | no corr | corr | |||
S1010 |
0.851 | 10.48 | 0.657 | 9.823 | 9.742 |
S1016* | 0.700 | 10.30 | 2.184 | 8.116 | 7.996 |
S1074* | 0.784 | 10.59 | 1.298 | 9.292 | 9.196 |
S1135 | 0.963 | 9.37 | -0.310 | 9.680 | 9.617 |
S1221 | 0.854 | 10.76 | 0.629 | 10.131 | 10.050 |
S1250* | 0.997 | 9.69 | -0.581 | 10.271 | 10.212 |
S1479 | 0.868 | 10.55 | 0.502 | 10.048 | 9.970 |
S1553 | 0.970 | 8.74 | -0.366 | 9.106 | 9.044 |
S488 | 1.010 | 8.86 | -0.682 | 9.542 | 9.485 |
S978* | 1.080 | 9.72 | -1.206 | 10.926 | 10.876 |
Mean value using all stars: | 9.693 | 9.619 | |||
Mean value using only unflagged stars: | 9.722 | 9.651 |
We have shown that the coupling of CCD high resolution, high S/N ratio data
with the use of the Hipparcos parallaxes allows a good determination
of the WBR.
The root mean square error
found around this relationship (0.6 mag) is not
good enough
to determine
accurate distances to single stars, but it can be used to infer
accurate distances of clusters or groups, provided that they are not too
metal poor.
This is possible because the uncertainties
in the relationship are mostly due to random errors
(measurements, cycles) and not from systematic effects.
This implies that once one has observed a sufficient number
of stars, n, the distance modulus standard error can be reduced to about
0.6 mag
.
Its extension to metal poor objects (e.g. stars with
)
would require extra care to fully evaluate the impact of low metallicity on
the relationship.
When using our WBR in photometric parallax determinations, the resolution
used should be comparable (within a factor
3)
to that of the calibration
(R=60 000), to avoid large corrections,
and care has to be exercised in measuring W0, following the proper
calibration definition.
Acknowledgements
We are greatly indebted to N. Bastian and P. Bristow for their careful reading of the manuscript. We thank the referee, Elena Schilbach, for very valuable comments and suggestions, which improved considerably the quality of this paper. Special thanks to A. Dupree, who kindly provided us with the M 67 spectra.