No Arabic abstract
Gaia benchmark stars are selected to be calibration stars for different spectroscopic surveys. Very high-quality and homogeneous spectroscopic data for these stars are therefore required. We collected ultrahigh-resolution ESPRESSO spectra for 30 of the 34 Gaia benchmark stars and made them public. We quantify the consistency of the results that are obtained with different high-, and ultrahigh-resolution spectrographs. We also comprehensively studied the effect of using different spectral reduction products of ESPRESSO on the final spectroscopic results. We used ultrahigh- and high-resolution spectra obtained with the ESPRESSO, PEPSI, and HARPS spectrographs to measure spectral line characteristics (line depth; line width; and EW) and determined stellar parameters and abundances for a subset of 11 Gaia benchmark stars. We used the ARES code for automatic measurements of the spectral line parameters. Our measurements reveal that the same individual spectral lines measured from adjacent 2D echelle orders of ESPRESSO spectra differ slightly in line depth and line width. When a long list of spectral lines is considered, the EW measurements based on the 2D and 1D (the final spectral product) ESPRESSO spectra agree very well. The EW spectral line measurements based on the ESPRESSO, PEPSI, and HARPS spectra also agree to within a few percent. However, we note that the lines appear deeper in the ESPRESSO spectra than in PEPSI and HARPS. The stellar parameters derived from each spectrograph by combining the several available spectra agree well overall. We conclude that the ESPRESSO, PEPSI, and HARPS spectrographs can deliver spectroscopic results that are sufficiently consistent for most of the science cases in stellar spectroscopy. However, we found small but important differences in the performance of the three spectrographs that can be crucial for specific science cases.
We determined the fundamental properties of HD 140283 by obtaining new interferometric and spectroscopic measurements and combining them with photometry from the literature. The interferometric measurements were obtained using the visible interferometer VEGA on the CHARA array and we determined a 1D limb-darkened angular diameter of 0.353 +/- 0.013 milliarcseconds. Using photometry from the literature we derived the bolometric flux with two solutions: a zero-reddening one of Fbol = 3.890 +/- 0.066 1E-8 erg/s/cm2 and a solution with a maximum of Av = 0.1 mag, Fbol= 4.220 +/- 0.067 1E-8 erg/s/cm2. The interferometric Teff is thus 5534 +/- 103 K or 5647 +/- 105 K and its radius is R = 2.21 +/- 0.08 Rsol. Spectroscopic measurements of HD140283 were obtained using HARPS, NARVAL, and UVES and a 1D LTE analysis of H-alpha line wings yields Teff(Halpha) = 5626 +/- 75 K. Using fine-tuned stellar models including diffusion of elements we then determined the mass M and age t of HD140283. Once the metallicity has been fixed, the age of the star depends on M, initial helium abundance Yi and mixing-length parameter alpha, only two of which are independent. We need to adjust alpha to much lower values than the solar one (~2) in order to fit the observations, and if Av = 0.0 mag then 0.5 < alpha < 1. We give an equation to estimate t from M, Yi (alpha) and Av. Establishing a reference alpha = 1.00 and adopting Yi = 0.245 we derive a mass and age of HD140283: M = 0.780 +/- 0.010 Msol and t = 13.7 +/- 0.7 Gyr (Av = 0.0) or M = 0.805 +/- 0.010 Msol and t = 12.2 +/- 0.6 Gyr (Av=0.1 mag). Our stellar models yield an initial metallicity of [Z/X]i = -1.70 and logg = 3.65 +/- 0.03. Asteroseismic observations are critical for overcoming limitations in our results.
Gaia and its complementary spectroscopic surveys combined will yield the most comprehensive database of kinematic and chemical information of stars in the Milky Way. The Gaia FGK benchmark stars play a central role in this matter as they are calibration pillars for the atmospheric parameters and chemical abundances for various surveys. The spectroscopic analyses of the benchmark stars are done by combining different methods, and the results will be affected by the systematic uncertainties inherent in each method. In this paper we explore some of these systematic uncertainties. We determined line abundances of Ca, Cr, Mn and Co for four benchmark stars using six different methods. We changed the default input parameters of the different codes in a systematic way and found in some cases significant differences between the results. Since there is no consensus on the correct values for many of these default parameters, we urge the community to raise discussions towards standard input parameters that could alleviate the difference in abundances obtained by different methods. In this work we provide quantitative estimates of uncertainties in elemental abundances due to the effect of differing technical assumptions in spectrum modelling.
Stellar models applied to large stellar surveys of the Milky Way need to be properly tested against a sample of stars with highly reliable fundamental stellar parameters. We have established a program aiming to deliver such a sample. We present new fundamental stellar parameters of nine dwarfs that will be used as benchmarks for large stellar surveys. One of these stars is the solar-twin 18Sco, which is one of the Gaia-ESO benchmarks. The goal is to reach a precision of 1% in Teff. This precision is important for accurate determinations of the full set of fundamental parameters and abundances of stars observed by the surveys. We observed HD131156 (xiBoo), HD146233 (18Sco), HD152391, HD173701, HD185395 (thetaCyg), HD186408 (16CygA), HD186427 (16CygB), HD190360 and HD207978 (15Peg) using the high angular resolution optical interferometric instrument PAVO/CHARA. We derived limb-darkening corrections from 3D model atmospheres and determined Teff directly from the Stefan-Boltzmann relation, with an iterative procedure to interpolate over tables of bolometric corrections. Surface gravities were estimated from comparisons to Dartmouth stellar evolution model tracks. We collected spectroscopic observations from the ELODIE spectrograph and estimated metallicities ([Fe/H]) from a 1D non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE) abundance analyses of unblended lines of neutral and singly ionized iron. For eight of the nine stars, we measure the Teff less than 1%, and for one star better than 2%. We determined the median uncertainties in logg and Fe/H as 0.015dex and 0.05dex, respectively. This study presents updated fundamental stellar parameters of nine dwarfs that can be used as a new set of benchmarks. All parameters were based on consistently combining interferometric observations, 3D limb-darkening modelling and spectroscopic analysis. The next paper will extend our sample to metal-rich giants.
Benchmark stars are crucial as validating standards for current as well as future large stellar surveys of the Milky Way. However, the number of suitable metal-poor benchmarks is currently limited. We aim to construct a new set of metal-poor benchmarks, based on reliable interferometric effective temperature ($T_text{eff}$) determinations and a homogeneous analysis with a desired precision of $1%$ in $T_text{eff}$. We observed ten late-type metal-poor dwarf and giants: HD2665, HD6755, HD6833, HD103095, HD122563, HD127243, HD140283, HD175305, HD221170, and HD224930. Only three of the ten stars (HD103095, HD122563, and HD140283) have previously been used as benchmarks. For the observations, we used the high angular resolution optical interferometric instrument PAVO at the CHARA array. We modelled angular diameters using 3D limb darkening models and determined $T_text{eff}$ directly from the Stefan-Boltzmann relation, with an iterative procedure to interpolate over tables of bolometric corrections. Surface gravities ($log(g)$) were estimated from comparisons to Dartmouth stellar evolution model tracks. We collected spectroscopic observations from the ELODIE and FIES spectrographs and estimated metallicities ($mathrm{[Fe/H]}$) from a 1D non-LTE abundance analysis of unblended lines of neutral and singly ionized iron. We inferred $T_text{eff}$ to better than $1%$ for five of the stars (HD103095, HD122563, HD127243, HD140283, and HD224930). The $T_text{eff}$ of the other five stars are reliable to between $2-3%$; the higher uncertainty on the $T_text{eff}$ for those stars is mainly due to their having a larger uncertainty in the bolometric fluxes. We also determined $log(g)$ and $mathrm{[Fe/H]}$ with median uncertainties of $0.03,mathrm{dex}$ and $0.09,mathrm{dex}$, respectively. These ten stars can, therefore, be adopted as a new, reliable set of metal-poor benchmarks.
Previous analyses of various standard candles observed by the Gaia satellite have reported statistically significant systematics in the parallaxes that have improved from $sim$250 $mu$as in the first data release (DR1) to 50--80 $mu$as in the second data release (DR2). Here we examine the parallaxes newly reported in the Gaia early third data release (EDR3) using the same sample of benchmark eclipsing binaries (EBs) we used to assess the DR1 and DR2 parallaxes. We find a mean offset of $-37pm20$ $mu$as (Gaia$-$EB), which decreases to $-15pm18$ $mu$as after applying the corrections recommended by the Gaia Mission team; global systematics in the Gaia parallaxes have clearly improved and are no longer statistically significant for the EB sample, which spans $5lesssim{G}lesssim12$ in brightness and 0.03--3 kpc in distance. We also find that the RUWE goodness-of-fit statistic reported in Gaia EDR3 is highly sensitive to unresolved companions (tertiaries in the case of our EB sample) as well as to photocenter motion of the binaries themselves. RUWE is nearly perfectly correlated ($r^2=0.82$) with photocenter motions down to $lesssim$0.1 mas, and surprisingly this correlation exists entirely within the nominal good RUWE range of 1.0--1.4. This suggests that RUWE values even slightly greater than 1.0 may signify unresolved binaries in Gaia, and that the RUWE value can serve as a quantitative predictor of the photocenter motion.