Tracers of chromospheric structure. I. CaII H$&$K emission distribution of 13000 F, G and K stars in SDSS DR7 spectroscopic sample


Abstract in English

We present chromospheric activity index $Srm_{HK}$ measurements for over 13,000 F, G and K disk stars with high signal-to-noise ratio ($>$ 60) spectra in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 7 (DR7) spectroscopic sample. A parameter $delta$S is defined as the difference between $Srm_{HK}$ and a `zero emission line fitted by several of the most inactive stars. The $Srm_{HK}$ indices of subgiant stars tend to be much lower than dwarfs, which provide a way to distinguish dwarfs and giants with relatively low resolution spectra. Cooler stars are generally more active and display a larger scatter than hotter stars. Stars associated with the thick disk are in general less active than those of the thin disk. The fraction of K dwarfs that are active drops with vertical distance from the Galactic plane. Metallicity affects $Srm_{HK}$ measurements differently among F, G and K dwarfs in this sample. Using the open clusters NGC 2420, M67 and NGC6791 as calibrations, ages of most field stars in this SDSS sample range from 3-8 Gyr.

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