Temperature stratification of the atmosphere of Arcturus

Abstract

A brief overview of the results of the investigations of the red giant star Arcturus is given. One-dimensional LTE modeling of the atmospheres of Arcturus and the Sun as a star is carried out on the basis of synthesis of the extended wings of the H and K Ca II lines. It is found that the local continuum in this spectral region is underestimated by an average of 12% in the atlases of Arcturus. The average deficit in UV absorption amounts to 43% for Arcturus whereas it is 9% for the Sun. For Arcturus the correction factor to the continuum opacity at the wavelengths of 390.0, 392.5, 395.0, 398.0, and 400.0 nm equals 2.20, 1.90, 1.70, 1.55, and 1.45. The model atmosphere of Arcturus obtained from the best-fit of the wings of the H and K Ca II lines corresponds to the model atmosphere with the fundamental parameters T_eff = 4286 K, log g = 1.66, and [Fe/H]=-0.52 derived by Ramirez and Allende Prieto (2011). The temperature stratification of Arcturus' atmosphere is presented in tabular form. To obtain more accurate temperature stratification in the future, we need a high spectral resolution spectrum calibrated to absolute fluxes with high accuracy.Comment: 21 pages, 10 figures, published in Kinematika i Fizika Nebesnykh Tel, 2013, Vol. 29, no. 4, P. 31-60 (in Russian); Kinematics Phys. Celestial Bodies 2013, Vol. 29, no. 4, P. 176-194 (in English

Iron abundance in the atmosphere of Arcturus

“…For Arcturus, we assumed the effective temperature T eff = 4286 K, the acceleration of gravity log g = 1.66, the metallicity [M/H] = −0.33, and the abundance of α-elements (O, Ne, Mg, Si, S, Ar, Ca, and Ti) [α/Fe] = +0.4 dex, which corresponds to the data of Ramírez and Allende Prieto [30]. The reliability of these data has been recently confirmed in our paper [32]. To obtain the atmospheric model with these fundamental parameters, we used six corresponding models from the MARCS database and interpolated them.…”