Description
Empirical fitting functions, describing the behaviour of the {lambda}4000{AA} break in terms of effective temperature, metallicity and surface gravity, are presented. For this purpose, the break has been measured in 392 stars from the Lick/IDS Library. We have followed a very detailed error treatment in the reduction and fitting procedures, allowing for a reliable estimation of the break uncertainties. This calibration can be easily incorporated into stellar population models to provide accurate predictions of the break amplitude for, relatively old, composite systems. Table 1 lists the star sample, together with spectral types, adopted atmospheric parameters, break measurements, including errors, and residuals from the fitting functions.
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