J/A+A/511/A54   Magnetic cycles and radial-velocity for 8 stars  (Santos+, 2010)

Do stellar magnetic cycles influence the measurement of precise radial velocities? Santos N.C., Gomes da Silva J., Lovis C., Melo C. <Astron. Astrophys. 511, A54 (2010)> =2010A&A...511A..54S 2010A&A...511A..54S
ADC_Keywords: Stars, G-type ; Radial velocities Keywords: planetary systems - stars: fundamental parameters - techniques: spectroscopic - techniques: radial velocities - stars: activity - starspots Abstract: The ever increasing level of precision achieved by present and future radial velocity instruments is opening the way to the discovery of very low mass, long period planets (e.g. solar-system analogs). These systems will be detectable as low amplitude signals in radial-velocity (RV). However, an important obstacle to their detection may be the existence of stellar magnetic cycles with similar timescales. Here we present the results of a long term program to measure simultaneously radial-velocities and stellar activity indicators (CaII, Hα, HeI) for a sample of stars with known activity cycles. Our results suggest that all these stellar activity indexes can be used to trace the stellar magnetic cycle in solar-type stars. Further to this, we find clear indications that different parameters of the HARPS cross-correlation function (BIS, FWHM, and Contrast) are also sensitive to activity level variations. Finally, we show that though in a few cases slight correlations or anti-correlations between radial-velocity and the activity level of the star exist, their origin is still not clear. We can however conclude that for our targets (early-K dwarfs) we do not find evidence for radial-velocity variations induced by variations of the stellar magnetic cycle with amplitudes significantly above 1m/s. Description: Tables contain the data used to produce figures 2, 3, and 8. File Summary: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FileName Lrecl Records Explanations -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ReadMe 80 . This file table1.dat 59 8 List of target stars table5.dat 37 241 CaII S activity level as a function of time table6.dat 39 275 Hα activity level as a function of time table7.dat 39 275 HeI D3 activity level as a function of time table8.dat 125 35 Yearly averages of CaII-S, RV, BIS, FWHM, and Contrast -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Byte-by-byte Description of file: table1.dat -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bytes Format Units Label Explanations -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1- 2 A2 --- --- [HD] 3- 8 I6 --- HD Star HD number 9 A1 --- m_HD Multiplicity index on HD 11- 14 F4.2 mag Vmag V magnitude 16- 20 F5.3 mag B-V B-V colour index 22- 28 A7 --- SpType MK spectral type 30- 31 I2 d Prot Rotational period (1) 33- 42 A10 "YYYY/MM/DD" ObsF First observation date 44- 53 A10 "YYYY/MM/DD" ObsL Last observation date 55- 56 I2 --- N Number of nights each star was observed 58- 59 I2 --- <S/N> Average signal-to-noise ratio of individual spectra in HARPS order 6 (near λ=4000Å) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note (1): From Baliunas et al., 1996ApJ...457L..99B 1996ApJ...457L..99B. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Byte-by-byte Description of file: table5.dat -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bytes Format Units Label Explanations -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1- 2 A2 --- --- [HD] 3- 8 I6 --- HD Star HD number 10- 23 F14.6 d BJD Barycentric Julian date 25- 30 F6.4 --- SMW CaII activity level in MW scale (SMW scale, see Baliunas et al. 1995ApJ...438..269B 1995ApJ...438..269B) 32- 37 F6.4 --- e_SMW Statistical error in SMW -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Byte-by-byte Description of file: table6.dat -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bytes Format Units Label Explanations -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1- 2 A2 --- --- [HD] 3- 8 I6 --- HD Star HD number 10- 23 F14.6 d BJD Barycentric Julian date 25- 31 F7.5 --- Halpha Hα activity level 33- 39 F7.5 --- e_Halpha Statistical error in Hα -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Byte-by-byte Description of file: table7.dat -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bytes Format Units Label Explanations -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1- 2 A2 --- --- [HD] 3- 8 I6 --- HD Star HD number 10- 23 F14.6 d BJD Barycentric Julian date 25- 31 F7.5 --- HeI HeI activity level 33- 39 F7.5 --- e_HeI Statistical error in HeI -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Byte-by-byte Description of file: table8.dat -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bytes Format Units Label Explanations -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1- 2 A2 --- --- [HD] 3- 8 I6 --- HD Star HD number 10- 13 I4 yr Year Year of the measurements 15- 28 F14.6 d BJD1 ?=- Average Barycentric Julian Date for SMW values 30- 43 F14.6 d BJD2 Average Barycentric Julian Date for RV, FWHM, BIS, and Contrast values 45- 51 F7.5 --- ?=- Average activity level in MW scale 53- 59 F7.5 --- e_ ?=- rms uncertainty on 61- 68 F8.4 km/s Average radial velocity 70- 75 F6.4 km/s e_ rms uncertainty on 77- 84 F8.5 km/s Average Bisector Inverse Slope (BIS) value (1) 86- 92 F7.5 km/s e_ rms uncertainty on 94-101 F8.5 % <Cont> Average Cross-Correlation Function's Contrast value (1) 103-109 F7.5 % e_<Cont> rms uncertainty on <Contrast> 111-117 F7.5 km/s Average FWHM value (1) 119-125 F7.5 km/s e_ rms uncertainty on -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note (1): Parameters of the HARPS cross-correlation function. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Acknowledgements: Nuno Santos, nuno(at)astro.up.pt
(End) Patricia Vannier [CDS] 28-Dec-2009
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