With an aim to examine how much information of solar rotation can be obtained purely spectroscopically by observing the sun-as-a-star during the 2012 May 21 eclipse at Okayama Astrophysical Observatory, we studied the variation of radial velocities (
V_r), which were derived by using the iodine-cell technique based on a set of 184 high-dispersion spectra consecutively obtained over the time span of ~4 hours. The resulting V_r(t) was confirmed to show the characteristic variation (Rossiter-McLaughlin effect) caused by time-varying visibility of the solar disk. By comparing the observed V_r(t) curve with the theoretical ones, which were simulated with the latitude (psi) dependent solar rotation law omega(psi) = A + B sin^2(psi) (deg/day), we found that the relation B = -5.5 A + 77 gives the best fit, though separate determinations of A and B were not possible. Since this relationship is consistent with the real values known for the sun (A = 14.5, B = -2.8), we may state that our analysis yielded satisfactory results. This consequence may provide a prospect of getting useful information on stellar rotation of eclipsing binaries from radial-velocity studies during eclipse, if many spectra of sufficiently high time-resolution are available.
In an attempt to carry out a systematic study on the behavior of the photospheric abundances of Li, C, and O (along with Fe) for Hyades main-sequence stars in the T_eff range of ~5000-7000K, we conducted an extensive spectrum-synthesis analysis appli
ed to four spectral regions (comprising lines of Fe-group elements, Li I 6708 line, C I 7111-7119 lines, and O I 6156-8 lines) based on the high-dispersion spectra of 68 selected F-G type stars belonging to this cluster. The abundances of C and O turned out to be fairly uniform in a marginally supersolar level such like the case of Fe: <[C/H]> = +0.15 (sigma = 0.08), <[O/H]> = +0.22 (sigma = 0.14), and <[Fe/H]> = +0.11(sigma = 0.08), suggesting that the primordial abundances are almost retained for these elements. Strictly, however, they show a slightly increasing trend with a decrease in T_eff (typically on the order of ~10^(-4) dex/K; while this might be due to an improper choice of atmospheric parameters, we found it hard to give a quantitatively reasonable explanation. Regarding Li, we confirmed the well-known T_eff-dependent trend in the Li abundance reported so far (a conspicuous Li-trough at 6300K <T_eff< 6700K and a progressive decrease toward a lower T_eff at T_eff < 6000K), which means that the surface Li of Hyades stars is essentially controlled only by T_eff and other parameters such as the rotational velocity are almost irrelevant.
To revisit the long-standing problem of possible inconsistency concerning the oxygen composition in the current galactic gas and in the solar atmosphere (i.e., the former being appreciably lower by ~0.3 dex) apparently contradicting the galactic chem
ical evolution, we carried out oxygen abundance determinations for 64 mid- through late-B stars by using the O I 6156-8 lines while taking into account the non-LTE effect, and compared them with the solar O abundance established in the same manner. The resulting mean oxygen abundance was <A(O)> = 8.71 (+/- 0.06), which means that [O/H] (star-Sun differential abundance) is ~-0.1, the difference being less significant than previously thought. Moreover, since the 3D correction may further reduce the reference solar oxygen abundance (8.81) by ~0.1 dex, we conclude that the photospheric O abundances of these B stars are almost the same as that of the Sun. We also determined the non-LTE abundances of neon for the sample B stars from Ne I 6143/6163 lines to be <A(Ne)> = 8.02 (+/- 0.09), leading to the Ne-to-O ratio of ~0.2 consistent with the recent studies. This excludes a possibility of considerably high Ne/O ratio once proposed as a solution to the confronted solar model problem.
We previously attempted to ascertain why the Li I 6708 line-strengths of Sun-like stars differ so significantly despite the superficial similarities of stellar parameters. We carried out a comprehensive analysis of 118 solar analogs and reported that
a close connection exists between the Li abundance A_Li and the line-broadening width (v_r+m; mainly contributed by rotational effect), which led us to conclude that stellar rotation may be the primary control of the surface Li content. To examine our claim in more detail, we study whether the degree of stellar activity exhibits a similar correlation with the Li abundance, which is expected because of the widely believed close connection between rotation and activity. We measured the residual flux at the line center of the strong Ca II 8542 line, r_0(8542), known to be a useful index of stellar activity, for all sample stars using newly acquired spectra in this near-IR region. The projected rotational velocity (v_e sin i) was estimated by subtracting the macroturbulence contribution from v_r+m that we had already established. A remarkable (positive) correlation was found in the A_Li versus (vs.) r_0(8542) diagram as well as in both the r_0(8542) vs. v_e sin i and A_Li vs. v_e sin i diagrams, as had been expected. With the confirmation of rotation-dependent stellar activity, this clearly shows that the surface Li abundances of these solar analogs progressively decrease as the rotation rate decreases. Given this observational evidence, we conclude that the depletion of surface Li in solar-type stars, probably caused by effective envelope mixing, operates more efficiently as stellar rotation decelerates. It may be promising to attribute the low-Li tendency of planet-host G dwarfs to their different nature in the stellar angular momentum.
A non-LTE analysis of K I resonance lines at 7664.91 and 7698.97 A was carried out for 15 red giants belonging to three globular clusters of different metallicity (M 4, M 13, and M 15) along with two reference early-K giants (rho Boo and alpha Boo),
in order to check whether the K abundances are uniform within a cluster and to investigate the behavior of [K/Fe] ratio at the relevant metallicity range of -2.5 <[Fe/H] < -1. We confirmed that [K/H] (as well as [Fe/H]) is almost homogeneous within each cluster to a precision of < ~0.1 dex, though dubiously large deviations are exceptionally seen for two peculiar stars showing signs of considerably increased turbulence in the upper atmosphere. The resulting [K/Fe] ratios are mildly supersolar by a few tenths of dex for three clusters, tending to gradually increase from ~+0.1-0.2 at [Fe/H] ~-1 to ~+0.3 at [Fe/H] ~ -2.5. This result connects reasonably well with the [K/Fe] trend of disk stars (-1 < [Fe/H]) and that of extremely metal-poor stars (-4 <[Fe/H] < -2.5). That is, [K/Fe] appears to continue a gradual increase from [Fe/H]~0 toward a lower metallicity regime down to [Fe/H]~-3, where a broad maximum of [K/Fe]~+0.3-0.4 is attained, possibly followed by a slight downturn at [Fe/H]<~-3.
The properties of 322 intermediate-mass late-G giants (comprising 10 planet-host stars) selected as the targets of Okayama Planet Search Program, many of which are red-clump giants, were comprehensively investigated by establishing their various stel
lar parameters (atmospheric parameters including turbulent velocity fields, metallicity, luminosity, mass, age, projected rotational velocity, etc.), and their photospheric chemical abundances for 17 elements, in order to study their mutual dependence, connection with the existence of planets, and possible evolution-related characteristics. The metallicity distribution of planet-host giants was found to be almost the same as that of non-planet-host giants, making marked contrast to the case of planet-host dwarfs tending to be metal-rich. Generally, the metallicities of these comparatively young (typical age of ~10^9 yr) giants tend to be somewhat lower than those of dwarfs at the same age, and super-metal-rich ([Fe/H] > 0.2) giants appear to be lacking. Apparent correlations were found between the abundances of C, O, and Na, suggesting that the surface compositions of these elements have undergone appreciable changes due to dredge-up of H-burning products by evolution-induced deep envelope mixing which becomes more efficient for higher-mass stars.
