Properties of Members of Stellar Kinematic Groups and Stars with Circumstellar Dusty Debris Discs
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UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA´ DE MADRID Facultad de Ciencias Departamento de F´ısica Teorica´ A spectroscopic study of the nearby late-type stellar population: Properties of members of stellar kinematic groups and stars with circumstellar dusty debris discs. PhD dissertation submitted by Jesus´ Maldonado Prado for the degree of Doctor in Physics Supervised by Dr. Carlos Eiroa de San Francisco Madrid, June 2012 UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA´ DE MADRID Facultad de Ciencias Departamento de F´ısica Teorica´ Estudio espectroscopico´ de la poblacion´ estelar fr´ıa cercana: Propiedades de estrellas en grupos cinematicos´ estelares y de estrellas con discos circunestelares de tipo debris. Memoria de tesis doctoral presentada por Jesus´ Maldonado Prado para optar al grado de Doctor en Ciencias F´ısicas Trabajo dirigido por el Dr. Carlos Eiroa de San Francisco Madrid, Junio de 2012 A mis padres y hermanos Agradecimientos La finalizaci´on de una tesis doctoral es siempre un momento para el balance y la reflexi´on. Conf´ıo que estas breves palabras sirvan de peque˜no reconocimiento a todas las personas que durante todo este largo, y no siempre f´acil, per´ıodo de tiempo han tenido a bien brindarme su ayuda, su apoyo y, en muchos casos, su simpat´ıa. A todos los que de alguna manera me habe´ıs ayudado, gracias. Las primeras palabras de estas notas deben ser para mi supervisor de tesis, Carlos Eiroa, por su confianza, su apoyo y dedicaci´on y sobre todo por esa mi- rada cr´ıtica tan suya que, desde siempre, ha tratado de transmitirme. A Benjam´ın Montesinos debo agradecerle muchas cosas, en particular su cercan´ıa y su forma de ser, a David Montes y a Raquel Mart´ınez, su esfuerzo y dedicaci´on. A Alcione Mora y a Eva Villaver quisiera agradecerles su confianza, sus consejos y lo mucho que he disfrutado trabajando con ellos. A lo largo de estos a˜nos he tenido la oportunidad de conocer y trabajar con mucha gente, de todos ellos he aprendido y con todos ellos he compartido buenas experiencias, en especial, Jonathan Marsall, Amelia Bayo, Gwendolyn Meeus, Alexander Mustill, Aurora Sicilia, todos los “DUNERs” y, por supuesto, Ignacio Mendigut´ıa con el que llevo tantos a˜nos compartiendo amistad. En especial, a Ralf Lahunhardt debo agradecerle la estancia que hice en Heidelberg y su ayuda con los espectros FEROS. Quisiera igualmente mencionar a mis amigos y compa˜neros del 301, al per- sonal del departamento de F´ısica Te´orica, de la Universidad Aut´onoma de Madrid, y de los observatorios de Calar Alto y La Palma, as´ıcomo a todos mis amigos en Bola˜nos, en Madrid y en otros muchos sitios. Las palabras m´as importantes, como casi siempre suele ocurrir, se dejan para el final y, como no puede ser de otra manera, han de ser para mi familia, mis padres y mis hermanos, porque me han querido, me han animado, han cuidado de m´ıdesde peque˜n´ıto y siempre han dado todo lo que tienen (e incluso lo que no tienen) por m´ı. Jes´us Maldonado Prado vii Acknowledgements This Ph.D. Thesis is based on observations made with the 2.2 m telescope at the Centro Astronomico´ Hispano-Aleman´ (CAHA) at Calar Alto (Spain), operated jointly by the Max-Planck Institute f¨ur Astronomie and the Instituto de Astrof´ısica de Andaluc´ıa (CSIC); the Italian Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG), operated on the island of La Palma by the Fundaci´on Galileo Galilei of the INAF (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica) at the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrof´ısica de Canarias; and the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT), operated on the island of La Palma jointly by Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrof´ısica de Canarias. Complementary data has also been taken from the ESO Science Archive facility at http:://archive.eso.org/cms/. This work has been supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Inno- vaci´on (MICINN), Programa Nacional de Formaci´on de Personal Investigador FPI 2006, and Plan Nacional de Astronom´ıa y Astrof´ısica, under projects AYA2005- 00954, and AYA2008-01727. The author also acknowledges support from the Department of Theoretical Physics of the Universidad Aut´onoma de Madrid, via an assistant teacher position. Additional funding for the Comunidad de Madrid project ASTRID S-0505/ESP/00361 is acknowledged. This research has made use of the SIMBAD database and the VizieR catalogue access tool both operated at CDS, Strasbourg, France. The Spanish Virtual Obser- vatory team is acknowledged for the development of the DAMA (Darwin Archive MAdrid) and DUNES Virtual Observatory Tools. This research also made use of the NASA’s Astrophysics Data System Bibliographic Services. ix Abstract Understanding how stars and planetary systems form and evolve is one of the major goals of modern Astrophysics. Given that their stellar properties resemble those of our Sun, main-sequence, late-type stars usually constitute primary tar- gets in exo-planet search programs, as well as surveys seeking for dusty debris discs similar to the Solar System’s zodiacal light and the Edgeworth Kuiper Belt. Nearby stars have the additional advantage that high-resolution observations can be obtained for large samples, allowing a precise determination of their properties. In this dissertation, the results of a high-resolution (λ/∆λ ∼ 57000), optical spectra study of a sample of nearby (distance less than 25 pc), main-sequence, late-type (spectral type FGK) stars are presented. The specific objective of this project is the spectroscopic characterisation of the nearby late-type stellar population, in particular the stars hosting debris discs. In order to analyse the temporal evolution of debris discs, stellar ages as ac- curate as possible are required. However, stellar age is one of the most difficult parameters to determine, in particular for solar-type field stars. Therefore, in the first part of this dissertation a comparison between different methods to derive ages is performed. Young stars are identified on the basis of their kinematics and plausible membership to stellar kinematic groups. Radial velocities are derived by using the cross-correlation technique and galactic spatial-velocity components (U, V, W) are computed. The young nature of the candidates selected by their kine- matics is confirmed or rejected by analysing their lithium abundances, rotation periods, and levels of chromospheric and coronal emission. Our results show that roughly 25% of the stars analysed show a kinematics in agreement with some of the known kinematic groups. Nevertheless, when age diagnostics are considered, most of these stars are too old to be members of kinematic groups, and only 25.5% of the candidates (6.5% of the total stars) can be considered as probable members of a kinematic group. The results of this study are published by Maldonado et al. (2010, Chapter 3). In the second part of this dissertation, we study whether the presence or ab- sence of debris discs correlate with the stellar properties of the host stars, in par- ticular with the stellar age and metallicity, since the presence of planets (giant- planets) is known to correlate with the metal content of the host star. Fundamental stellar parameters, Teff, log g, and [Fe/H] are calculated by measuring the equiva- lent width of a sample of isolated Fe I and Fe II lines and applying the iron excita- tion and ionisation equilibrium conditions. Data from the literature for those stars with debris disc not included in our spectroscopic observations are also used. We have found a smooth transition toward higher metallicities from stars with neither debris disc nor planets to stars hosting giant-planets. Stars with debris discs show a similar metallicity distribution to that of stars without discs. Stars harbouring xi ABSTRACT both debris discs and planets show the same metallicity behaviour as stars hosting planets. These results can be explained by core-accretion models of planet for- mation. In addition, we have also found that planets orbiting around stars with debris discs are usually cool. The data suggest that stars hosting debris and gas- giant planets tend to have low-dust luminosities, and that there seems to be an anticorrelation between the dust luminosity and the innermost planet eccentricity. These trends could be explained by recent simulations of dynamical instabilities produced by eccentric giant planets. This study is published by Maldonado et al. (2012, Chapter 4). The confirmation or rejection of the apparent trends suggested in Chapter 4 requires the analysis of extended samples, i.e., the detection of new debris discs around stars with planets. The possibility of finding colder and fainter debris discs using the new capabilities offered by the Herschel Space Telescope is discussed in Chapter 5. This work was motivated as a preparatory activity for the DUNES (DUst around NEarby Stars, Principal Investigator: Carlos Eiroa) project, a Her- schel Open Time Key Project aimed to detect circumstellar debris discs with IR excesses as low as the one of the Edgeworth-Kuiper belt. The work addresses how stellar photospheres are predicted at far-IR wavelengths, analysing the differ- ent sources of uncertainties and their influence in the detection of a debris discs: i) choice of the stellar atmosphere model (ATLAS9, PHOENIX, MARCS); ii) stellar parameters; and iii) choice of the photometric points used to match the models with the observed spectral energy distribution. This work played a central role to accurately fix the exposure time of each of the DUNES targets, achieving a compromise between the exposure time of each target and optimising, as much as possible, the total observing time granted for DUNES.