A&A 616, A33 (2018) Astronomy https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201833111 & c ESO 2018 Astrophysics Precise radial velocities of giant stars X. Bayesian stellar parameters and evolutionary stages for 372 giant stars from the Lick planet search? Stephan Stock, Sabine Reffert, and Andreas Quirrenbach Landessternwarte, Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg, Königstuhl 12, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany e-mail:
[email protected] Received 27 March 2018 / Accepted 4 May 2018 ABSTRACT Context. The determination of accurate stellar parameters of giant stars is essential for our understanding of such stars in general and as exoplanet host stars in particular. Precise stellar masses are vital for determining the lower mass limit of potential substellar companions with the radial velocity method, but also for dynamical modeling of multiplanetary systems and the analysis of planetary evolution. Aims. Our goal is to determine stellar parameters, including mass, radius, age, surface gravity, effective temperature and luminosity, for the sample of giants observed by the Lick planet search. Furthermore, we want to derive the probability of these stars being on the horizontal branch (HB) or red giant branch (RGB), respectively. Methods. We compare spectroscopic, photometric and astrometric observables to grids of stellar evolutionary models using Bayesian inference. Results. We provide tables of stellar parameters, probabilities for the current post-main sequence evolutionary stage, and probability density functions for 372 giants from the Lick planet search. We find that 81% of the stars in our sample are more probably on the HB. In particular, this is the case for 15 of the 16 planet host stars in the sample.