No Arabic abstract
The discovery of true solar analogues is fundamental for a better understanding of the Sun and of the solar system. The open cluster M67 offers a unique opportunity to search for solar analogues because its chemical composition and age are very similar to those of the Sun. We analyze FLAMES spectra of a large number of M67 main sequence stars to identify solar analogues in this cluster.We first determine cluster members which are likely not binaries, by combining proper motions and radial velocity measurements. We concentrate our analysis on the determination of stellar effective temperature, using analyses of line-depth ratios and H$alpha$ wings, making a direct comparison with the solar spectrum obtained with the same instrument. We also compute the lithium abundance for all the stars.Ten stars have both the temperature derived by line-depth ratios and H$alpha$ wings within 100 K from the Sun. From these stars we derive, assuming a cluster reddening $E(B-V)=0.041$, the solar colour $(B-V)_odot=0.649pm0.016$ and a cluster distance modulus of 9.63. Five stars are most similar (within 60 K) to the Sun and candidates to be true solar twins. These stars have also a low Li content, comparable to the photospheric abundance of the Sun, likely indicating a similar mixing evolution. We find several candidates for the best solar analogues ever. These stars are amenable to further spectroscopic investigations and planet search. The solar colours are determined with rather high accuracy with an independent method, as well as the cluster distance modulus.
We determine the age and mass of the three best solar twin candidates in open cluster M67 through lithium evolutionary models. We computed a grid of evolutionary models with non-standard mixing at metallicity [Fe/H] = 0.01 with the Toulouse-Geneva evolution code for a range of stellar masses. We estimated the mass and age of 10 solar analogs belonging to the open cluster M67. We made a detailed study of the three solar twins of the sample, YPB637, YPB1194, and YPB1787. We obtained a very accurate estimation of the mass of our solar analogs in M67 by interpolating in the grid of evolutionary models. The three solar twins allowed us to estimate the age of the open cluster, which is 3.87+0.55-0.66 Gyr, which is better constrained than former estimates. Our results show that the 3 solar twin candidates have one solar mass within the errors and that M67 has a solar age within the errors, validating its use as a solar proxy. M67 is an important cluster when searching for solar twins.
Stars in open clusters are expected to share an identical abundance pattern. Establishing the level of chemical homogeneity in a given open cluster deserves further study as it is the basis of the concept of chemical tagging to unravel the history of the Milky Way. M67 is particularly interesting given its solar metallicity and age as well as being a dense cluster environment. We conducted a strictly line-by-line differential chemical abundance analysis of two solar twins in M67: M67-1194 and M67-1315. Stellar atmospheric parameters and elemental abundances were obtained with high precision using Keck/HIRES spectra. M67-1194 is essentially identical to the Sun in terms of its stellar parameters. M67-1315 is warmer than M67-1194 by ~ 150 K as well as slightly more metal-poor than M67-1194 by ~ 0.05 dex. M67-1194 is also found to have identical chemical composition to the Sun, confirming its solar twin nature. The abundance ratios [X/Fe] of M67-1315 are similar to the solar abundances for elements with atomic number Z <= 30, while most neutron-capture elements are enriched by ~ 0.05 dex, which might be attributed to enrichment from a mixture of AGB ejecta and r-process material. The distinct chemical abundances for the neutron-capture elements in M67-1315 and the lower metallicity of this star compared to M67-1194, indicate that the stars in M67 are likely not chemically homogeneous. This poses a challenge for the concept of chemical tagging since it is based on the assumption of stars forming in the same star-forming aggregate.
A large dataset of ~2800 spectra extracted from the ELODIE archive was analysed in order to find solar twins. A list of stellar spectra closely resembling the spectrum of the Sun was selected by applying a purely differential method, directly on the fluxes. As solar reference, 18 spectra of asteroids, Moon and blue sky were used. Atmospheric parameters and differential abundances of 8 chemical elements were determined for the solar twin candidates, after a careful selection of appropriate lines. The Li feature of the targets was investigated and additional information on absolute magnitude and age was gathered from the literature. HIP076114 (HD138573) is our best twin candidate, looking exactly like the Sun in all these properties.
We present 63 Solar analogues and twins for which high S/N archival data are available for the HARPS high resolution spectrograph at the ESO 3.6m telescope. We perform a differential analysis of these stellar spectra relative to the Solar spectrum, similar to previous work using ESO 2.2m/FEROS data, and expand our analysis by introducing a new method to test the temperature and metallicity calibration of Sun-like stars in the Geneva-Copenhagen-Survey (GCS). The HARPS data are significantly better than the FEROS data, with improvements in S/N, spectral resolution, and number of lines we can analyse. We confirm the offsets to the photometric scale found in our FEROS study. We confirm 3 Solar twins found in the FEROS data as Solar twins in the HARPS data, as well as identify 6 new twins.
The solar analogues are fundamental targets for a better understanding of our Sun and Solar System. Notwithstanding the efforts, this research is usually limited to field stars. The open cluster M67 offers a unique opportunity to search for solar analogues because its chemical composition and age are very similar to those of our star. In this work, we analyze FLAMES@VLT spectra of about one hundred of M67 main sequence stars with the aim to identify solar analogues. We first determine cluster members which are likely not binaries, by combining both proper motions and radial velocity measurements. Then, we concentrate our analysis on the determination of stellar effective temperature, using the analyzes of line-depth ratios and Halpha wings. Finally, we also compute lithium abundance for all the stars. Thanks to the our analysis, we find ten solar analogues, which allow us to derive a solar color (B-V)=0.649+/-0.016 and a cluster distance modulus of 9.63+/-0.08, very close to values found by previous authors. Among them, five are the best solar twins with temperature determinations within 60 K from the solar values. Our results lead us to do further spectroscopic investigations because the solar analogues candidates are suitable for planet search.