No Arabic abstract
Solar twins are key in different areas of astrophysics, however only just over a hundred were identified and well-studied in the last two decades. In this work, we take advantage of the very precise textit{Gaia} (DR2/EDR3), Tycho and 2MASS photometric systems to create the Inti survey of new solar twins in the Northern Hemisphere. The spectra of our targets were initially obtained with spectrographs of moderate resolution (ARCES and Goodman spectrographs with $R$ = 31500 and 11930, respectively) to find the best solar twin candidates and then observed at McDonald Observatory with higher resolving power (TS23, $R$ = 60000) and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR $sim$ 300-500). The stellar parameters were estimated through the differential spectroscopic equilibrium relative to the Sun, which allow us to achieve a high internal precision ($sigma(T_{rm{eff}})$ = 15 K, $sigma(log g)$ = 0.03 dex, $sigma$([Fe/H]) = 0.01 dex, and $sigma(v_{t})$ = 0.03 km s$^{-1}$). We propose a new class of stars with evolution similar to the Sun: textit{solar proxy}, which is useful to perform studies related to the evolution of the Sun, such as its rotational and magnetic evolution. Its definition is based on metallicity ($-$0.15 dex $leq$ [Fe/H] $leq$ +0.15 dex) and mass (0.95 M$_{odot}$ $leq$ M $leq$ 1.05 M$_{odot}$) constraints, thus assuring that the star follows a similar evolutionary path as the Sun along the main sequence. Based on this new definition, we report 70 newly identified solar proxies, 46 solar analogs and 13 solar-type stars. In addition, we identified 9 textit{close solar twins} whose stellar parameters are the most similar to those of the Sun.
We search for solar twins in the Geneva-Copenhagen Survey (GCS) using high resolution optical spectroscopy. We initially select Sun-like stars from the GCS by absolute magnitude, b-y colour and metallicity close to the solar values. Our aim is to find the stars which are spectroscopically very close to the Sun using line depth ratios and the median equivalent widths and depths of selected lines with a range of excitation potentials. We present the ten best stars fulfilling combined photometric and spectroscopic criteria, of which six are new twins. We use our full sample of Sun-like stars to examine the calibration of the metallicity and temperature scale in the GCS. Our results give rise to the conclusion that the GCS may be offset from the solar temperature and metallicity for sun-like stars by 100K and 0.1dex, respectively.
The C-Band All-Sky Survey (C-BASS) is an all-sky full-polarization survey at a frequency of 5 GHz, designed to provide data complementary to the all-sky surveys of WMAP and Planck and future CMB B-mode polarization imaging surveys. We describe the design and performance of the digital backend used for the northern part of the survey. In particular we describe the features that efficiently implement the demodulation and filtering required to suppress contaminating signals in the time-ordered data, and the capability for real-time correction of detector non-linearity and receiver balance.
Precise radial-velocity observations at Haute-Provence Observatory (OHP, France) with the ELODIE echelle spectrograph have been undertaken since 1994. In addition to several discoveries described elsewhere, including and following that of 51 Peg b, they reveal new sub-stellar companions with essentially moderate to long periods. We report here about such companions orbiting five solar-type stars (HD 8574, HD 23596, HD 33636, HD 50554, HD 106252) and one sub-giant star (HD 190228). The companion of HD 8574 has an intermediate period of 227.55 days and a semi--major axis of 0.77 AU. All other companions have long periods, exceeding 3 years, and consequently their semi-major axes are around or above 2 AU. The detected companions have minimum masses m2sini ranging from slightly more than 2 M_Jup to 10.6 M_Jup. These additional objects reinforce the conclusion that most planetary companions have masses lower than 5 M_Jup but with a tail of the mass distribution going up above 15 M_Jup. The orbits are all eccentric and 4 out of 6 have an eccentricity of the order of 0.5. Four stars exhibit solar metallicity, one is metal-rich and one metal-poor. With 6 new extra-solar planet candidates discovered, increasing their total known to-date number to 115, the ELODIE Planet Search Survey yield is currently 18. We emphasize that 3 out of the 6 companions could in principle be resolved by diffraction-limited imaging on 8m-class telescopes depending on the achievable contrast, and therefore be primary targets for first attempts of extra-solar planet direct imaging.
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.
Several abundance analyses of Galactic open clusters (OCs) have shown a tendency for Ba but not for other heavy elements (La$-$Sm) to increase sharply with decreasing age such that Ba was claimed to reach [Ba/Fe] $simeq +0.6$ in the youngest clusters (ages $<$ 100 Myr) rising from [Ba/Fe]$=0.00$ dex in solar-age clusters. Within the formulation of the $s$-process, the difficulty to replicate higher Ba abundance and normal La$-$Sm abundances in young clusters is known as {it the barium puzzle}. Here, we investigate the barium puzzle using extremely high-resolution and high signal-to-noise spectra of 24 solar twins and measured the heavy elements Ba, La, Ce, Nd and Sm with a precision of 0.03 dex. We demonstrate that the enhanced Ba {scs II} relative to La$-$Sm seen among solar twins, stellar associations and OCs at young ages ($<$100 Myr) is unrelated to aspects of stellar nucleosynthesis but has resulted from overestimation of Ba by standard methods of LTE abundance analysis in which the microturbulence derived from the Fe lines formed deep in the photosphere is insufficient to represent the true line broadening imposed on Ba {scs II} lines by the upper photospheric layers from where the Ba {scs II} lines emerge. As the young stars have relatively active photospheres, Ba overabundances most likely result from the adoption of too low a value of microturbulence in the spectum synthesis of the strong Ba {scs II} lines but the change of microturbulence in the upper photosphere has only a minor affect on La$-$Sm abundances measured from the weak lines.