We present a homogeneous analysis of line and continuum emission from simultaneous high-cadence spectra and photometry covering near-ultraviolet and optical wavelengths for 20 M dwarf flares. These data were obtained to study the white-light continuum components at bluer and redder wavelengths than the Balmer jump. Our goals were to break the degeneracy between emission mechanisms that have been fit to broadband colors of flares and to provide constraints for radiative-hydrodynamic (RHD) flare models that seek to reproduce the white-light flare emission. New model constraints are presented for the time evolution among the hydrogen Balmer lines and between CaII K and the blackbody continuum emission. We calculate Balmer jump flux ratios and compare to the solar-type flare heating predictions from RHD models. The model ratios are too large and the blue-optical ({lambda}=4000-4800{AA}) slopes are too red in both the impulsive and gradual decay phases of all 20 flares. This discrepancy implies that further work is needed to understand the heating at high column mass during dMe flares.
In young Sun-like stars and field M-dwarf stars, chromospheric and coronal magnetic activity indicators such as H{alpha}, X-ray, and radio emission are known to saturate with low Rossby number (Ro<~0.1), defined as the ratio of rotation period to convective turnover time. The mechanism for the saturation is unclear. In this paper, we use photospheric TiI and CaI absorption lines in the Y band to investigate magnetic field strength in M dwarfs for Rossby numbers between 0.01 and 1.0. The equivalent widths of the lines are magnetically enhanced by photospheric spots, a global field, or a combination of the two. The equivalent widths behave qualitatively similar to the chromospheric and coronal indicators: we see increasing equivalent widths (increasing absorption) with decreasing Ro and saturation of the equivalent widths for Ro<~0.1. The majority of M dwarfs in this study are fully convective. The results add to mounting evidence that the magnetic saturation mechanism occurs at or beneath the stellar photosphere.
The HeI infrared (IR) triplet at 10830{AA} is an important activity indicator for the Sun and in solar-type stars, however, it has rarely been studied in relation to M dwarfs to date. In this study, we use the time-averaged spectra of 319 single stars with spectral types ranging from M0.0 V to M9.0V obtained with the CARMENES high resolution optical and near-infrared spectrograph at Calar Alto to study the properties of the HeI IR triplet lines. In quiescence, we find the triplet in absorption with a decrease of the measured pseudo equivalent width (pEW) towards later sub-types. For stars later than M5.0 V, the HeI triplet becomes undetectable in our study. This dependence on effective temperature may be related to a change in chromospheric conditions along the Mdwarf sequence. When an emission in the triplet is observed, we attribute it to flaring. The absence of emission during quiescence is consistent with line formation by photo-ionisation and recombination, while flare emission may be caused by collisions within dense material. The HeI triplet tends to increase in depth according to increasing activity levels, ultimately becoming filled in; however, we do not find a correlation between the pEW(He IR) and X-ray properties. This behaviour may be attributed to the absence of very inactive stars (LX/Lbol<-5.5) in our sample or to the complex behaviour with regard to increasing depth and filling in.
The relatively large spread in the derived metallicities ([Fe/H]) of M dwarfs shows that various approaches have not yet converged to consistency. The presence of strong molecular features, and incomplete line lists for the corresponding molecules have made metallicity determinations of M dwarfs difficult. Furthermore, the faint M dwarfs require long exposure times for a signal-to-noise ratio sufficient for a detailed spectroscopic abundance analysis. We present a high-resolution (R~50000) spectroscopic study of a sample of eight single M dwarfs and three wide-binary systems observed in the infrared J-band.
Despite the ubiquity of M dwarfs and their growing importance to studies of exoplanets, Galactic evolution, and stellar structure, methods for precisely measuring their fundamental stellar properties remain elusive. Existing techniques for measuring M dwarf luminosity, mass, radius, or composition are calibrated over a limited range of stellar parameters or require expensive observations. We find a strong correlation between the K_S_-band luminosity (M_K_), the observed strength of the I-band sodium doublet absorption feature, and [Fe/H] in M dwarfs without strong H{alpha} emission. We show that the strength of this feature, coupled with [Fe/H] and spectral type, can be used to derive M dwarf M_K_ and radius without requiring parallax. Additionally, we find promising evidence that the strengths of the I-band sodium doublet and the nearby I-band calcium triplet may jointly indicate {alpha}-element enrichment. The use of these I-band features requires only moderate-resolution near-infrared spectroscopy to provide valuable information about the potential habitability of exoplanets around M dwarfs, and surface gravity and distance for M dwarfs throughout the Galaxy. This technique has immediate applicability for both target selection and candidate planet-host system characterization for exoplanet missions such as TESS and K2.
Defining templates of galaxy spectra is useful to quickly characterise new obervations and organise data bases from surveys. These templates are usually built from a pre-defined classification based on other criteria. We present an unsupervised classification of 702248 spectra of galaxies and quasars with redshifts smaller than 0.25 that were retrieved from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) database, release 7. The spectra were first corrected for the redshift, then wavelet-filtered to reduce the noise, and finally binned to obtain about 1437 wavelengths per spectrum. Fisher-EM, an unsupervised clustering discriminative latent mixture model algorithm, was applied on these corrected spectra, considering the full set as well as several subsets of 100000 and 300000 spectra. The optimum number of classes given by a penalised likelihood criterion is 86 classes, the 37 most populated ones gathering 99% of the sample. These classes are established from a subset of 302214 spectra. Using several cross-validation techniques we find that this classification is in agreement with the results obtained on the other subsets with an average misclassification error of about 15\%. The large number of very small classes tends to increase this error rate. In this paper, we make a first quick comparison of our classes with the templates of Kennicutt (1992), Dobos et al (2012), Wang et al (2018). This is the first time that an automatic, objective and robust unsupervised classification is established on such a large amount of spectra of galaxies. The mean spectra of the classes can be used as templates for a large majority of galaxies in our Universe.
We investigate the ultraviolet (UV) spectral properties of faint Lyman{alpha} emitters (LAEs) in the redshift range 2.9<=z<=4.6 and provide material to prepare future observations of the faint Universe. We use data from the MUSE Hubble Ultra Deep Survey to construct mean rest-frame spectra of continuum-faint (median M_UV_ of -18 and down to M_UV_ of -16), low stellar mass (median value of 10^8.4^ and down to 10^7^ solar masses) LAEs at redshift z>3. We compute various averaged spectra of LAEs sub-sampled on the basis of their observational (e.g., Ly{alpha} strength, UV magnitude and spectral slope) and physical (e.g., stellar mass and star-formation rate) properties. We search for UV spectral features other than Ly{alpha}, such as higher-ionization nebular emission lines and absorption features. We successfully observe the OIII]{lambda}1666 and [CIII]{lambda}1907+CIII]{lambda}1909 collisionally excited emission lines and the HeII{lambda}1640 recombination feature, as well as the resonant CIV{lambda}1548,1551 doublet either in emission or P-Cygni. We compare the observed spectral properties of the different mean spectra and find the emission lines to vary with the observational and physical properties of the LAEs. In particular, the mean spectra of LAEs with larger Ly{alpha} equivalent widths, fainter UV magnitudes, bluer UV spectral slopes and lower stellar masses show the strongest nebular emission. The line ratios of these lines are similar to those measured in the spectra of local metal-poor galaxies, while their equivalent widths are weaker compared to the handful of extreme values detected in individual spectra of z>2 galaxies. This suggests that weak UV features are likely ubiquitous in high z, low-mass and faint LAEs. We publicly release the stacked spectra as they can serve as empirical templates for the design of future observations, such as those with the James Webb Space Telescope and the Extremely Large Telescope.
Provided are average spectra extending from 510 to 2490nm for: - Oxygen rich, optically visible LPVs (temperature sequence based on the colour I-K); - Carbon rich, optically visible LPVs (temperature sequence based on the colour R-H, and C/O sequence); - Oxygen rich, dust-enshrouded LPVs (reddened versions of the coolest optically visible average); - Carbon rich, dust-enshrouded LPVs (reddened versions of the coolest optically visible average).
CP Pup (Nova Pup 1942) showed outburst and quiescent characteristics indicating a very massive white dwarf, yet the standard spectroscopic dynamical analysis assuming an accretion disk yields an extremely low value for the white dwarf mass. However, some physical parameters and the accretion geometry are still poorly known. The nova was spectroscopically monitored between 1988 and 1996. We analyzed the whole data set in order to re-determine the spectroscopic period and examine its stability. We also looked for chemical anomalies in the spectrum.
We present a library of mean ultraviolet stellar energy distributions derived from International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) low-resolution spectrophotometry of 216 stars. The library is intended to facilitate interpretation of the composite UV light of stellar populations such as star clusters and galaxies. The spectra cover 1205-3185 Angstroms with a spectral resolution of approximately 6 A. The individual stellar spectra were corrected for interstellar extinction (using the Savage-Mathis law), converted to a common flux scale, and interpolated to a common wavelength scale. Stars were combined into standard groups according to their intrinsic continuum colors, observed UV spectral morphology, MK luminosity class, and metal abundance. The library consists of 56 groups: 21 dwarf (V), 8 subgiant (IV), 16 giant (III), and 11 supergiant (I+II) groups, covering O3-M4 spectral types. A metal-poor sequence is included, containing four dwarf and two giant groups, as is a metal-enhanced sequence with a single dwarf, subgiant, and giant group. More information on the library compilation and descriptions of the behaviour of spectral indices characterizing the continuum and strong absorption features are given in the paper. The spectra themselves (in the uvgroups.fit file) were previously released in the AAS CD-ROM Series Volume VII (1996); see Leitherer et al. "A Database for Galaxy Evolution Modeling" (1996PASP..108..996L).
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