arXiv subjects

Gregory Ruchti

Publications and source records attributed to Gregory Ruchti.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2017

Non-local thermodynamic equilibrium stellar spectroscopy with 1D and 3D models - II. Chemical properties of the Galactic metal-poor disc and the halo

From exploratory studies and theoretical expectations it is known that simplifying approximations in spectroscopic analysis (LTE, 1D) lead to systematic biases of stellar parameters and abundances. These biases depend strongly on surface gravity, temperature, and, in particular, for LTE vs. non-LTE (NLTE) on metallicity of the stars. Here we analyse the [Mg/Fe] and [Fe/H] plane of a sample of 326 stars, comparing LTE and NLTE results obtained using 1D hydrostatic models and averaged <3D> models. We show that compared to the <3D>NLTE benchmark, all other three methods display increasing biases towards lower metallicities, resulting in false trends of [Mg/Fe] against [Fe/H], which have profound implications for interpretations by chemical evolution models. In our best <3D> NLTE model, the halo and disc stars show a clearer behaviour in the [Mg/Fe] - [Fe/H] plane, from the knee in abundance space down to the lowest metallicities. Our sample has a large fraction of thick disc stars and this population extends down to at least [Fe/H] ~ -1.6 dex, further than previously proven. The thick disc stars display a constant [Mg/Fe] ~ 0.3 dex, with a small intrinsic dispersion in [Mg/Fe] that suggests that a fast SN Ia channel is not relevant for the disc formation. The halo stars reach higher [Mg/Fe] ratios and display a net trend of [Mg/Fe] at low metallicities, paired with a large dispersion in [Mg/Fe]. These indicate the diverse origin of halo stars from accreted low-mass systems to stochastic/inhomogeneous chemical evolution in the Galactic halo.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2017

Non-local thermodynamic equilibrium stellar spectroscopy with 1D and <3D> models - I. Methods and application to magnesium abundances in standard stars

We determine Mg abundances in 6 Gaia benchmark stars using theoretical one-dimensional (1D) hydrostatic model atmospheres, as well as temporally- and spatially-averaged 3D model atmospheres (<3D>). The stars cover a range of Teff from 4700 to 6500 K, log g from 1.6 to 4.4 dex, and [Fe/H] from -3.0 dex to solar. Spectrum synthesis calculations are performed in local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) and in non-LTE (NLTE) using the oscillator strengths recently published by Pehlivan Rhodin et al. We find that: a) Mg abundances determined from the infrared spectra are as accurate as the optical diagnostics, b) the NLTE effects on Mg I line strengths and abundances in this sample of stars are minor (although for a few Mg I lines the NLTE effects on abundance exceed 0.6 dex in <3D> and 0.1 dex in 1D, c) the solar Mg abundance is 7.56 +/- 0.05 dex (total error), in the excellent agreement with the Mg abundance measured in CI chondritic meteorites, d) the 1D NLTE and <3D> NLTE approach can be used with confidence to analyse optical Mg I lines in spectra of dwarfs and sub-giants, but for red giants the Mg I 5711 A line should be preferred, e) low-excitation Mg I lines are sensitive to the atmospheric structure; for these lines, LTE calculations with <3D> models lead to significant systematic abundance errors. The methods developed in this work will be used to study Mg abundances of a large sample of stars in the next paper in the series.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2012

Bayesian analysis of ages, masses, and distances to cool stars with non-LTE spectroscopic parameters

For studies of Galactic evolution, the accurate characterization of stars in terms of their evolutionary stage and population membership is of fundamental importance. A standard approach relies on extracting this information from stellar evolution models but requires the effective temperature, surface gravity, and metallicity of a star obtained by independent means. In previous work, we determined accurate effective temperatures and non-LTE logg and [Fe/H] (NLTE-Opt) for a large sample of metal-poor stars, -3<[Fe/H]<-0.5, selected from the RAVE survey. As a continuation of that work, we derive here their masses, ages, and distances using a Bayesian scheme and GARSTEC stellar tracks. For comparison, we also use stellar parameters determined from the widely-used 1D LTE excitation-ionization balance of Fe (LTE-Fe). We find that the latter leads to systematically underestimated stellar ages, by 10-30%, but overestimated masses and distances. Metal-poor giants suffer from the largest fractional distance biases of 70%. Furthermore, we compare our results with those released by the RAVE collaboration for the stars in common (DR3, Zwitter et al. 2010, Seibert et al. 2011). This reveals -400 to +400 K offsets in effective temperature, -0.5 to 1.0 dex offsets in surface gravity, and 10 to 70% in distances. The systematic trends strongly resemble the correlation we find between the NLTE-Opt and LTE-Fe parameters, indicating that the RAVE DR3 data may be affected by the physical limitations of the 1D LTE synthetic spectra. Our results bear on any study, where spectrophotometric distances underlie stellar kinematics. In particular, they shed new light on the debated controversy about the Galactic halo origin raised by the SDSS/SEGUE observations.

astro-ph.SR↗