arXiv subjects

Yoichi Takeda

Publications and source records attributed to Yoichi Takeda.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2021

Regular Radial Velocity Variations in Nine G- and K-type Giant Stars: Eight Planets and One Planet Candidate

We report the detection of radial velocity variations in nine evolved G- and K-type giant stars. The observations were conducted at Okayama Astrophysical Observatory. Planets or planet candidates can best explain these regular variations. However, a coincidence of near 280-day variability among five of them prevents us from fully ruling out stellar origins for some of the variations, since all nine stars behave similarly in stellar properties. In the planet hypotheses to the RV variations, the planets (including one candidate) may survive close to the boundary of the so-called "planet desert" around evolved stars, having orbital periods between 255 and 555 days. Besides, they are the least-massive giant planets detected around G- and K-type giant stars, with minimum masses between 0.45$M_{\rm{J}}$ and 1.34$M_{\rm{J}}$. We further investigated other hypotheses for our detection, yet none of them can better explain regular RV variation. With our detection, it is convinced that year-long regular variation with amplitude down to 15 $\rm{m\ s^{-1}}$ for G- and K-type giant stars is detectable. Moreover, we performed simulations to further confirm the detectability of planets around these stars. Finally, we explored giant planets around intermediate-mass stars, and likewise found a 4 Jupiter mass gap (e.g. Santo et al. 2017), which is probably a boundary of the giant planet population.

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arXiv2021

Center--limb variation of solar photospheric microturbulence

Microturbulence (ξ) is a key parameter introduced in stellar spectroscopy to explain the strength of saturated lines by formally incorporating an additional thermal broadening term in the line opacity profile. Although our Sun can serve as an important testing bench to check the usual assumption of constant ξ, the detailed behavior of how ξvaries from the disk center through the limb seems to have never been investigated so far. In order to fill this gap, local ξvalues on the solar disk were determined from the equivalent widths of 46 Fe I lines at 32 points from the center to the limb by requiring the consistency between the abundances derived from lines of various strengths. The run of ξwith θ(angle between line of sight and the surface normal) was found to be only gradual from ~1.0km/s (at sinθ= 0: disk center) to ~1.3km/s (at sinθ~ 0.7: two-thirds of radial distance); but thereafter increasing more steeply up to ~2km/s (at sinθ= 0.97: limb). This result further suggests that the microturbulence derived from the flux spectrum of the disk-integrated Sun is by ~20% larger than that of the disk-center value, which is almost consistent with the prediction from 3D hydrodynamical model atmospheres.

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arXiv2021

A compositional link between rocky exoplanets and their host stars

Stars and planets both form by accreting material from a surrounding disk. Because they grow from the same material, theory predicts that there should be a relationship between their compositions. In this study, we search for a compositional link between rocky exoplanets and their host stars. We estimate the iron-mass fraction of rocky exoplanets from their masses and radii and compare it with the compositions of their host stars, which we assume reflect the compositions of the protoplanetary disks. We find a correlation (but not a 1:1 relationship) between these two quantities, with a slope of >4, which we interpret as being attributable to planet formation processes. Super-Earths and super-Mercuries appear to be distinct populations with differing compositions, implying differences in their formation processes.

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arXiv2021

Determination of Vega's rotational velocity based on the Fourier analysis of spectral line profiles

While it is known that the sharp-line star Vega (vsini ~ 20km/s) is actually a rapid rotator seen nearly pole-on with low i (< 10 deg), no consensus has yet been accomplished regarding its intrinsic rotational velocity (v_e), for which rather different values have been reported so far. Methodologically, detailed analysis of spectral line profiles is useful for this purpose, since they reflect more or less the v_e-dependent gravitational darkening effect. However, direct comparison of observed and theoretically simulated line profiles is not necessarily effective in practice, where the solution is sensitively affected by various conditions and the scope for combining many lines is lacking. In this study, determination of Vega's v_e was attempted based on an alternative approach making use of the first zero (q_1) of the Fourier transform of each line profile, which depends upon K (temperature sensitivity parameter differing from line to line) and v_e. It turned out that v_e and vsini could be separately established by comparing the observed q_1^obs and calculated q_1^cal values for a number of lines of different K. Actually, independent analysis applied to two line sets (49 Fe I lines and 41 Fe II lines) yielded results reasonably consistent with each other. The final parameters of Vega's rotation were concluded as vsini = 21.6 (+/- 0.3) km/s, v_e = 195 (+/- 15) km/s, and i = 6.4 (+/- 0.5) deg.

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arXiv2021

Rubidium abundances of galactic disk stars

Spectroscopic determinations of Rubidium abundances were conducted by applying the spectrum fitting method to the Rb I 7800 line for an extensive sample of ~500 late-type dwarfs as well as giants (including Hyades cluster stars) belonging to the galactic disk population, with an aim of establishing the behaviour of [Rb/Fe] ratio for disk stars in the metallicity range of -0.6<[Fe/H]<+0.3. An inspection of the resulting Rb abundances for Hyades dwarfs revealed that they show a systematic Teff-dependent trend at >5500K; this means that the results for mid-G to F stars (including the Sun) are not reliable (i.e., more or less overestimated), which might be due to some imperfect treatment of surface convection in classical model atmospheres. As such, it was decided to confine only to late-G and K stars at Teff<5500K and adopt the solar-system (meteoritic) value as the reference Rb abundance. The [Rb/Fe] vs.[Fe/H] relations derived for field dwarfs and giants turned out to be consistent with each other, showing a gradual increase of [Rb/Fe] with a decrease in [Fe/H] (with d[Rb/Fe]/d[Fe/H] gradient of ~-0.4 around the solar metallicity), which is favourably compared with the theoretical prediction of chemical evolution models. Accordingly, this study could not confirm the anomalous behaviour of [Rb/Fe] ratio (tending to be subsolar but steeply increasing toward supersolar metallicity) recently reported for M dwarf stars of -0.3<[Fe/H]<+0.3.

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arXiv2020

On the rotational velocity of Sirius A

With an aim of getting information on the equatorial rotation velocity (v_e) of Sirius A separated from the inclination effect (sin i), a detailed profile analysis based on the Fourier transform technique was carried out for a large number of spectral lines, while explicitly taking into account the line-by-line differences in the centre-limb behaviours and the gravity darkening effect (which depend on the physical properties of each line) based on model calculations. The simulations showed that how the 1st-zero frequencies (q_1) of Fourier transform amplitudes depends on v_e is essentially determined by the temperature-sensitivity parameter (K) differing from line to line, and that Fe I lines (especially those of very weak ones) are more sensitive to v_e than Fe II lines. The following conclusions were drawn by comparing the theoretical and observed q_1 values for many Fe I and Fe II lines: (1) The projected rotational velocity (vsini) for Sirius A is fairly well established at 16.3 (+/-0.1) km/s by requiring that both Fe I and Fe II lines yield consistent results. (2) Although precise separation of v_e and i is difficult, v_e is concluded to be in the range of 16 < v_e < 30-40 km/s, which corresponds to 25 < i(deg) < 90. Accordingly, Sirius A is an intrinsically slow rotator for an A-type star, being consistent with its surface chemical peculiarity.

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arXiv2020

Spectroscopic Determination of Stellar Parameters and Oxygen Abundances for Hyades/Field G-K Dwarfs

It has been occasionally suggested that Fe abundances of K dwarfs derived from Fe I and Fe II lines show considerable discrepancies and oxygen abundances determined from high-excitation O I 7771-5 triplet lines are appreciably overestimated (the problem becoming more serious towards lower Teff), which however has not yet been widely confirmed. With an aim to clarify this issue, we spectroscopically determined the atmospheric parameters of 148 G-K dwarfs (Hyades cluster stars and field stars) by assuming the classical Fe I/Fe II ionization equilibrium as usual, and determined their oxygen abundances by applying the non-LTE spectrum fitting analysis to O I 7771-5 lines. It turned out that the resulting parameters did not show any significant inconsistency with those determined by other methods (for example, the mean differences in Teff and log g from the well-determined solutions of Hyades dwarfs are mostly <~100K and <~0.1dex). Likewise, the oxygen abundances of Hyades stars are around [O/H]~+0.2dex (consistent with the metallicity of this cluster) without exhibiting any systematic Teff-dependence. Accordingly, we conclude that parameters can be spectroscopically evaluated to a sufficient precision in the conventional manner (based on the Saha-Boltzmann equation for Fe I/Fe II) and oxygen abundances can be reliably determined from the O I 7771-5 triplet for K dwarfs as far as stars of Teff>~4500K are concerned. We suspect that previously reported strongly Teff-dependent discrepancies may have stemmed mainly from overestimation of weak-line strengths and/or improper Teff scale.

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arXiv2020

Determination of Potassium Abundances for Giant and Dwarf Stars in the Galactic Disk

An extensive study on the potassium abundances of late-type stars was carried out by applying the non-LTE spectrum-fitting analysis to the K I resonance line at 7698.96A to a large sample of 160 FGK dwarfs and 328 late-G /early-K giants (including 89 giants in the Kepler field with seismologically known ages) belonging to the disk population (-1 < [Fe/H] < 0.5), which may provide important observational constraint on the nucleosynthesis history of K in the galactic disk. Special attention was paid to clarifying the observed behaviors of [K/Fe] in terms of [Fe/H] along with stellar age, and to checking whether giants and dwarfs yield consistent results with each other. The following results were obtained. (1) A slightly increasing tendency of [K/Fe] with a decrease in [Fe/H] (d[K/Fe]/d[Fe/H] ~ -0.1 to -0.15; a shallower slope than reported by previous studies) was confirmed for FGK dwarfs, though thick-disk stars tend to show larger [K/Fe] deviating from this gradient. (2) Almost similar characteristics was observed also for apparently bright field giants locating in the solar neighborhood (such as like dwarfs). (3) However, the [K/Fe] vs. [Fe/H] relation for more distant {\it Kepler} giants shows larger scatter and is systematically higher (by <~0.1dex) than that of dwarfs, implying that chemical evolution of K is rather diversified depending on the position in the Galaxy. (4) Regarding the age-dependence, a marginal trend of increasing [K/Fe] with age is recognized for dwarfs, while any systematic tendency is not observed for Kepler giants. These consequences may suggest that evolution of [K/Fe] with time in the galactic disk does exist but proceeded more gradually than previously thought, and its condition is appreciably location-dependent.

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arXiv2020

Spectrum variability of the active solar-type star Xi Bootis A

An extensive spectroscopic study on ξBoo A (chromospherically active solar-type star) was conducted based on the spectra obtained in 2008 December though 2010 May, with an aim to detect any spectrum variability and to understand its physical origin. For each spectrum, the atmospheric parameters were spectroscopically determined based on Fe lines, and the equivalent widths (along with the line-broadening parameters) of selected 99 lines were measured. We could detect meaningful small fluctuations in the equivalent widths of medium-strength lines. This variation was found to correlate with the effective temperature (T_eff) consistently with the T-sensitivity of each line, which indicates that the difference in the mean temperature averaged over the disk of inhomogeneous condition is mainly responsible for this variability. It was also found that the macrobroadening widths of medium-strength lines and the equivalent widths dispersion of saturated lines tend to increase with the effective Lande factor, suggesting an influence of magnetic field. Our power spectrum analysis applied to the time-sequence data of V I/Fe II line-strength ratio and T_eff could not confirm the 6.4 d period reported by previous studies. We suspect that surface inhomogeneities of ξBoo A at the time of our observations were not so much simple (such as single star patch) as rather complex (e.g., intricate aggregate of spots and faculae).

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arXiv2019

On the detection of stellar differential rotation based on the Fourier transform of spectral line profiles

It is known that stellar differential rotation can be detected by analyzing the Fourier transform of spectral line profiles, since the ratio of the 1st- and 2nd-zero frequencies is a useful indicator. This approach essentially relies on the conventional formulation that the observed flux profile is expressible as a convolution of the rotational broadning function and the intrinsic profile, which implicitly assumes that the local intensity profile does not change over disk. Although this postulation is unrealistic in the strict sense, how the result is affected by this approximation is still unclear. In order to examine this problem, profiles of several lines (showing different center-limb variations) were simulated using a model atmosphere corresponding to a mid-F dwarf by integrating intensity profiles for various combinations of vsini (rot. velocity), alpha (diff. degree), and i (inc. angle), and their Fourier transforms were computed to check whether zeros are detected at the predicted positions or not. For this comparison purpose, a large grid of standard rotational broadening functions and their transforms/zeros were also calculated. It turned out that the situation criticaly depends on vsini: In case of vsini>~20km/s where rotational broadening is predominant over other line broadening velocities (typically several km/s), the 1st/2nd zeros of the transform are confirmed almost at the expected positions. In contrast, deviations begin to appear as vsini is lowered, and the zero features of the transform are totally different from the expectation at vsini as low as ~10km/s, which means that the classical formulation is no more valid. Accordingly, while the zero-frequency approach is safely applicable to studying differential rotation in the former broader-line case, it would be difficult to practice for the latter sharp-line case.

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arXiv2019

Photospheric nitrogen abundances and carbon 12C/13C ratios of red giant stars

Nitrogen abundances and carbon isotope ratios (12C/13C) in the atmospheres of red giants are known to be influenced by dredge-up of H-burning products and serve as useful probes to study the nature of evolution-induced envelope mixing. We determined the [N/Fe] and 12C/13C ratios for 239 late-G/early-K giant stars by applying the spectrum-fitting technique to the 12CN and 13CN lines in the ~8002-8005A region, with an aim to investigate how these quantities are related to other similar mixing-affected indicators which were already reported in our previous work. It was confirmed that [N/Fe] values are generally supersolar (typically by several tenths dex though widely differ from star to star), anti-correlated with [C/Fe], and correlated with [Na/Fe], as expected from theory. As seen from their dependence upon stellar parameters, it appears that mixing tends to be enhanced with an increase of stellar luminosity (or mass) and rotational velocity, which is also reasonable from the theoretical viewpoint. In contrast, the resulting 12C/13C ratios turned out to be considerably diversified in the range of ~5-50 (with a peak around ~20), without showing any systematic dependence upon C or N abundance anomalies caused by the mixing of CN-cycled material. It thus appears that our understanding on the photospheric 12C/13C ratios in red giants is still incomplete, for which more observational studies would be required.

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arXiv2019

Do Hertzsprung-Gap Stars Show Any Chemical Anomaly?

With an aim to investigate how the surface abundances of intermediate-mass stars off the main sequence (evolving toward the red-giant stage) are affected by the evolution-induced envelope mixing, we spectroscopically determined the abundances of Li, C, N, O, and Na for selected 62 late A through G subgiants, giants, and supergiants, which are often called "Hertzsprung-gap stars," by applying the synthetic spectrumfitting technique to Li I 6708, C I 5380, N I 7460, O I 6156-8, and Na I 6161 lines. A substantially large star-to-star dispersion (> 2 dex) was confirmed for the Li abundances, indicating that this vulnerable element can either suffer significant depletion before the red-giant stage or almost retain the primordial composition. Regarding C, N, O, and Na possibly altered by dredge-up of nuclear-processed products, their abundances turned out to show considerable scatter. This suggests that these abundance results are likely to suffer appreciable uncertainties, the reason for which is not clear but might be due to some kind of inadequate modeling for the atmospheric structure. Yet, paying attention to the fact that the relative abundance ratios between C, N, and O should be more reliable (because systematic errors may be canceled as lines of similar properties are used for these species), we could confirm a positive correlation between [O/C] (ranging from ~0 to ~+0.5 dex) and [N/C] (showing a larger spread from ~0 to ~+1 dex), which is reasonably consistent with the theoretical prediction. This observational detection of C deficiency as well as N enrichment in our program stars manifestly indicates that the dredge-up of H-burning product can take place before entering the red-giant stage, with its extent differing from star to star.

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arXiv2019

Compositional differences between the component stars of eclipsing close binary systems showing chemical peculiarities

A spectroscopic study was carried out on the surface chemical abundances of CNO and several heavier elements in the primary and secondary components of 5 eclipsing close binaries around A-type (AR Aur, beta Aur, YZ Cas, WW Aur, and RR Lyn), in order to investigate the nature of chemical differences between both components (being comparatively slow rotators alike due to tidal synchronization). Regarding the systems comprising similar components, beta Aur and WW Aur were confirmed to exhibit no compositional difference between the primary and secondary both showing almost the same Am anomaly, though the chemical peculiarities seen in the component stars of AR Aur show distinct differences (HgMn star and Am star). In contrast, as to the systems (YZ Cas and RR Lyn) consisting of considerably different (A and early-F) components, the surface abundances are markedly different between the primary (Am) and secondary (normal). These observational results may indicate Teff-dependent characteristics regarding the chemical anomalies of non-magnetic stars on the upper main sequence: (1) In the effective temperature range of 10000K > Teff > 7000K, rotational velocity is the most important factor for determining the extent of Am peculiarity. (2) However, the emergence of Am phenomenon seems to have a lower Teff limit at ~7000K, below which no abundance anomaly is observed regardless of stellar rotation. (3) The transition from Am anomaly (mild deficiency in CNO) to HgMn anomaly (unusually large N depletion) is likely to take place as Teff increases from ~10000K to ~11000K.

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arXiv2019

Possibility of chromospheric back-radiation influencing the lithium line formation in Spite plateau stars

Spectroscopically determined Li abundances of metal-poor turn-off dwarfs are known to be nearly constant (Spite plateau), but lower than the primordial value expected from the standard cosmological model. However, abundance determination by using conventional model atmospheres may not necessarily be correct since the existence of high-temperature chromosphere even in very old stars has been confirmed. The aim of this study is to examine how the extra UV flux possibly irradiated from the chromosphere could affect the formation of the Li I 6708 line, and whether or not its influence might lead to a solution of the Li abundance discrepancy. A simple model chromosphere of a uniform thin gray slab emitting only thermal radiation is assumed, characterized by optical thickness and temperature. By taking into account this incident radiation in the surface boundary condition, non-LTE calculations for Li are carried out to see how the equivalent widths and the abundances are affected by these parameters. If the parameters are appropriately chosen, the strength of the Li I 6708 line can be reduced by a factor of ~2-3 due to overionization caused by enhanced UV radiation, leading to a lowering of the abundance by ~0.3-0.5 dex, which is consistent with the discrepancy in question. Moreover, the observed slight metallicity-dependent trend of the plateau can also be reproduced. Thus, superficial underestimation of Li abundances due to considerable overionization caused by chromospheric radiation may be regarded as a ponderable interpretation for the cosmological Li problem. The touchstone to verify this model would be to check the existence of significantly enhanced UV radiation in these Spite plateau stars, which should be detected if this scenario is valid, although very few such UV spectrophotometric observations have been done to date.

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arXiv2018

Photospheric carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen abundances of A-type main-sequence stars

Based on the spectrum fitting method applied to CI 5380, NI 7486, and OI 6156-8 lines, we determined the abundances of C, N, and O for 100 mostly A-type main-sequence stars (late B through early F at 11000K>Teff>7000K) comprising normal stars as well as non-magnetic chemically peculiar (CP) stars in the projected rotational velocity range of 0km/s N>O. Regarding the considerable star-to-star dispersion observed at any Teff, the most important cause is presumably the difference in rotational velocity. These observational facts appear to be more or less favorably compared with the recent theoretical calculations based on the model of atomic diffusion and envelope mixing.

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arXiv2018

Spectroscopic Determination of Capella's Photospheric Abundances: Possible Influence of Stellar Activity

Capella is a spectroscopic binary consisting of two G-type giants, where the primary (G8III) is a normal red-clump giant while the secondary (G0III) is a chromospherically-active fast rotator showing considerable overabundance of Li as Li-enhanced giants. Recently, Takeda & Tajitsu (2017) reported that abundance ratios of specific light elements (e.g., [C/Fe] or [O/Fe]) in Li-rich giants of high activity tend to be anomalously high, which they suspected to be nothing but superficial caused by unusual atmospheric structure due to high activity. Towards verifying this hypothesis, we determined the elemental abundances of the primary and the secondary of Capella based on the disentangled spectrum of each component, in order to see whether any apparent disagreement exists between the two, which should have been formed with the same chemical composition. We found that the primary is slightly supersolar (by ~+0.1dex) while the secondary is subsolar (by several tenths dex) for heavier elements such as Fe, resulting in a marked discrepancy between the primary and secondary, though such a trend is not seen for light elements (e.g., C or O). These observational facts suggest that anomalously large [X/Fe] ratios found in Li-rich giants were mainly due to an apparent decrease of Fe abundance, which we speculate is caused by the overionization effect due to chromospheric UV radiation. We thus conclude that conventional model atmosphere analysis would fail to correctly determine the abundances of fast-rotating giants of high activity, for which proper treatment of chromospheric effect is required for deriving true photospheric abundances.

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arXiv2018

Planets around the evolved stars 24 Booties and $γ$ Libra: A 30d-period planet and a double giant-planet system in possible 7:3 MMR

We report the detection of planets around two evolved giant stars from radial velocity measurements at Okayama Astrophysical observatory. 24 Boo (G3IV) has a mass of $0.99\,M_{\odot}$, a radius of $10.64\,R_{\odot}$, and a metallicity of ${\rm [Fe/H]}=-0.77$. The star hosts one planet with a minimum mass of $0.91\,M_{\rm Jup}$ and an orbital period of $30.35{\rm d}$. The planet has one of the shortest orbital periods among those ever found around evolved stars by radial-veloocity methods. The stellar radial velocities show additional periodicity with $150{\rm d}$, which are probably attributed to stellar activity. The star is one of the lowest-metallicity stars orbited by planets currently known. $γ$ Lib (K0III) is also a metal-poor giant with a mass of $1.47\,M_{\odot}$, a radius of $11.1\,R_{\odot}$, and ${\rm [Fe/H]}=-0.30$. The star hosts two planets with minimum masses of $1.02M_{\rm Jup}$ and $4.58\,M_{\rm Jup}$, and periods of $415{\rm d}$ and $964{\rm d}$, respectively. The star has the second lowest metallicity among the giant stars hosting more than two planets. Dynamical stability analysis for the $γ$ Lib system sets a minimum orbital inclination angle to be about $70^{\circ}$ and suggests that the planets are in 7:3 mean-motion resonance, though the current best-fitted orbits to the radial-velocity data are not totally regular.

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arXiv2017

Luminosity effect of O I 7771-5 triplet and atmospheric microturbulence in evolved A-, F-, and G-type stars

It is known that the strength of neutral oxygen triplet lines at 7771-5 A shows a luminosity effect in evolved A through G stars. However, its general behavior across the HR diagram is not yet well understood, since the applicability limit of the relations proposed by various previous work (tending to be biased toward supergiants) still remains unclear. Besides, our understanding on the nature of atmospheric micro-scale turbulence, which is considered to play a significant role (along with the non-LTE line intensification) for the cause of this effect, is still insufficient. Towards clarifying these problems, we carried out an extensive non-LTE spectrum-fitting analysis of O I 7771--5 lines for unbiased sample of 75 evolved A-, F,- and G-type stars over wide luminosity classes (from subgiants through supergiants) including rapid rotators, from which the total equivalent width (W_77) was derived and the microturbulence (xi) was determined by two different (profile- and abundance-based) methods for each star. While we confirmed that W_77 tends to increase in the global sense as a star's absolute magnitude (M_V) becomes more luminous, distinctly different trends were found between lower-gravity (log g <~ 2.5) and higher-gravity (log g >~ 2.5) stars, in the sense that the M_V vs. W_77 formulas proposed by past studies are applicable only to the former supergiant group. In case of using W_77 for empirical M_V evaluation by such simple formulas, it is recommended to confine only to supergiants of -5 > M_V > -10. Regarding the microturbulence significantly controlling W_77, it roughly shows an increasing tendency with a decrease in surface gravity. However, the trend is not monotonic but rather intricate (e.g., hump, stagnation, or discontinuously large increase) depending on the stellar type and evolutionary stage.

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