Publication: The CARMENES search for exoplanets around M dwarfs Not-so-fine hyperfine-split vanadium lines in cool star spectra
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2021-10-20
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Abstract
Context. M-dwarf spectra are complex and notoriously difficult to model, posing challenges to understanding their photospheric properties and compositions in depth. Vanadium (V) is an iron-group element whose abundance supposedly closely tracks that of iron, but has origins that are not completely understood. Aims. Our aim is to characterize a series of neutral vanadium atomic absorption lines in the 800-910 nm wavelength region of high signal-to-noise, high-resolution, telluric-corrected M-dwarf spectra from the CARMENES survey. Many of these lines are prominent and exhibit a distinctive broad and flat-bottom shape, which is a result of hyperfine structure (HFS). We investigate the potential and implications of these HFS split lines for abundance analysis of cool stars. Methods. With standard spectral synthesis routines, as provided by the spectroscopy software iSpec and the latest atomic data (including HFS) available from the VALD3 database, we modeled these striking line profiles. We used them to measure V abundances of cool dwarfs. Results. We determined V abundances for 135 early M dwarfs (M0.0 V to M3.5 V) in the CARMENES guaranteed time observations sample. They exhibit a [V/Fe]-[Fe/H] trend consistent with that derived from nearby FG dwarfs. The tight (+/- 0.1 dex) correlation between [V/H] and [Fe/H] suggests the potential application of V as an alternative metallicity indicator in M dwarfs. We also show hints that neglecting to model HFS could partially explain the temperature correlation in V abundance measurements observed in previous studies of samples involving dwarf stars with T-eff less than or similar to 5300 K. Conclusions. Our work suggests that HFS can impact certain absorption lines in cool photospheres more severely than in Sun-like ones. Therefore, we advocate that HFS should be carefully treated in abundance studies in stars cooler than similar to 5000 K. On the other hand, strong HFS split lines in high-resolution spectra present an opportunity for precision chemical analyses of large samples of cool stars. The V-to-Fe trends exhibited by the local M dwarfs continue to challenge theoretical models of V production in the Galaxy.
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© ESO 2021. Artículo firmado por 27 autores. We thank Nikola Vitas and Andrew McWilliam for pedagogical discussions on the nature of HFS splitting. We are grateful to our referee Vardan Adibekyan for insightful feedback that helped to improve the quality of this manuscript. CARMENES is an instrument at the Centro Astronómico Hispano-Alemán (CAHA) at Calar Alto (Almeria, Spain), operated jointly by the Junta de Andalucía and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (CSIC). CARMENES was funded by the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG), the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through projects FICTS-2011-02, ICTS-2017-07-CAHA-4, and CAHA16-CE-3978, and the members of the CARMENES Consortium (Max-Planck-Institut fur Astronomie, Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, Landessternwarte Konigstuhl, Institut de Ciencies de l'Espai, Institut fur Astrophysik Gottingen, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Thuringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Hamburger Sternwarte, Centro de Astrobiología and Centro Astronómico Hispano-Alemán), with additional contributions by the MINECO, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) through the Major Research Instrumentation Programme and Research Unit FOR2544 "Blue Planets around Red Stars", the Klaus Tschira Stiftung, the states of Baden-Wurttemberg and Niedersachsen, and by the Junta de Andalucía. We acknowledge financial support from the Agencia Estatal de Investigación of the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades and the ERDF through projects PID2019-109522GB-C5[1:4]/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and the Centre of Excellence "Severo Ochoa" and "María de Maeztu" awards to the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (CEX2019-000920-S), Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (SEV-2017-0709), and Centro de Astrobiología (MDM-2017-0737), the Generalitat de Catalunya/CERCA programme, the Austrian Science Fund (P 33 140-N), the Ministerio de Universidades (FPU15/01476), the DFG (SPP 1992 JE 701/5-1), and NASA (NNX17AG24G). This work has made use of the VALD database, operated at Uppsala University, the Institute of Astronomy RAS in Moscow, and the University of Vienna.