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Register a new userSounding stellar cycles with Kepler - preliminary results from ground-based chromospheric activity measurements
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Due to its unique long-term coverage and high photometric precision, observations from the Kepler asteroseismic investigation will provide us with the possibility to sound stellar cycles in a number of solar-type stars with asteroseismology. By comparing these measurements with conventional ground-based chromospheric activity measurements we might be able to increase our understanding of the relation between the chromospheric changes and the changes in the eigenmodes. In parallel with the Kepler observations we have therefore started a programme at the Nordic Optical Telescope to observe and monitor chromospheric activity in the stars that are most likely to be selected for observations for the whole satellite mission. The ground-based observations presented here can be used both to guide the selection of the special Kepler targets and as the first step in a monitoring programme for stellar cycles. Also, the chromospheric activity measurements obtained from the ground-based observations can be compared with stellar parameters such as ages and rotation in order to improve stellar evolution models.
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By combining ground-based spectrographic observations of variability in the chromospheric emission from Sun-like stars with the variability seen in their eigenmode frequencies, it is possible to relate the changes observed at the surfaces of these stars to the changes taking place in the interior. By further comparing this variability to changes in the relative flux from the stars, one can obtain an expression for how these activity indicators relate to the energy output from the stars. Such studies become very pertinent when the variability can be related to stellar cycles as they can then be used to improve our understanding of the solar cycle and its effect on the energy output from the Sun. Here we present observations of chromospheric emission in 20 Sun-like stars obtained over the course of the nominal 4-year Kepler mission. Even though 4 years is too short to detect stellar equivalents of the 11-year solar cycle, observations from the Kepler mission can still be used to analyse the variability of the different activity indicators thereby obtaining information of the physical mechanism generating the variability. The analysis reveals no strong correlation between the different activity indicators, except in very few cases. We suggest that this is due to the sparse sampling of our ground-based observations on the one hand and that we are likely not tracing cyclic variability on the other hand. We also discuss how to improve the situation.
Although not designed as an astrometric instrument, Kepler is expected to produce astrometric results of a quality appropriate to support many of the astrophysical investigations enabled by its photometric results. On the basis of data collected during the first few months of operation, the astrometric precision for a single 30 minute measure appears to be better than 4 milliarcseconds (0.001 pixel). Solutions for stellar parallax and proper motions await more observations, but the analysis of the astrometric residuals from a local solution in the vicinity of a star have already proved to be an important tool in the process of confirming the hypothesis of a planetary transit.
The current photometric datasets, that span decades, allow for studying long-term cycles on active stars. Complementary Ca H&K observations give information also on the cycles of normal solar-like stars, which have significantly smaller, and less easily detectable, spots. In the recent years, high precision space-based observations, for example from the Kepler satellite, have allowed also to study the sunspot-like spot sizes in other stars. Here I review what is known about the properties of the cyclic stellar activity in other stars than our Sun.
We present a catalogue of homogeneous determined chromospheric emission (CE), stellar atmospheric parameters and ages for 1,674 FGK main sequence (MS), subgiant, and giant stars. The analysis of CE level and variability is also performed. We measured CE in the CaII lines using more than 180,000 high-resolution spectra from the HARPS spectrograph, as compiled in the AMBRE project, obtained between 2003 and 2019. We converted the fluxes to bolometric and photospheric corrected chromospheric emission ratio, $R_text{HK}$. Stellar atmospheric parameters $T_text{eff}$, $log g$, and [Fe/H] were retrieved from the literature or determined using an homogeneous method. $M_star$, $R_star$, and ages were determined from isochrone fitting. We analysed the CE distribution for the different luminosity classes and spectral types and confirmed the existence of the very inactive stars (VIS) and very active stars (VAS) populations at $log R_text{HK}< -5.1$ and $> -4.2$ dex, respectively. We found indications that the VIS population is composed mainly of subgiant and giant stars and that $log R_text{HK}= -5.1$ dex marks a transition in stellar evolution. There appears to be at least three regimes of variability, for inactive, active and very active stars, with the inactive and active regimes separated by a diagonal Vaughan-Preston gap. We show that stars with low activity levels do not necessarily have low variability. In the case of K dwarfs which show high CE variability, inactive and active stars have similar levels of activity variability. This means that activity levels alone are not enough to infer about the activity variability of a star. We also explained the shape of the VP gap observed in the distribution of CE by using the CE variability-level diagram. In the CE variability-level diagram, the Sun is located in the high variability region of the inactive MS stars zone. (Abridged)
We identify a set of 18 solar analogs among the seismic sample of solar-like stars observed by the Kepler satellite rotating between 10 and 40 days. This set is constructed using the asteroseismic stellar properties derived using either the global oscillation properties or the individual acoustic frequencies. We measure the magnetic activity properties of these stars using observations collected by the photometric Kepler satellite and by the ground-based, high-resolution Hermes spectrograph mounted on the Mercator telescope. The photospheric (Sph) and chromospheric (S index) magnetic activity levels of these seismic solar analogs are estimated and compared in relation to the solar activity. We show that the activity of the Sun is comparable to the activity of the seismic solar analogs, within the maximum-to-minimum temporal variations of the 11-year solar activity cycle 23. In agreement with previous studies, the youngest stars and fastest rotators in our sample are actually the most active. The activity of stars older than the Sun seems to not evolve much with age. Furthermore, the comparison of the photospheric, Sph, with the well-established chromospheric, S index, indicates that the Sph index can be used to provide a suitable magnetic activity proxy which can be easily estimated for a large number of stars from space photometric observations.
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