New and updated stellar parameters for 90 transit hosts: The effect of the surface gravity

A. Mortier, N. C. Santos, S. G. Sousa, J. M. Fernandes, V. Zh Adibekyan, E. Delgado Mena, M. Montalto, G. Israelian

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

77 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Context. Precise stellar parameters are crucial in exoplanet research for correctly determining the planetary parameters. For stars hosting a transiting planet, determining the planetary mass and radius depends on the stellar mass and radius, which in turn depend on the atmospheric stellar parameters. Different methods can provide different results, which leads to different planet characteristics. Aims. In this paper, we use a uniform method to spectroscopically derive stellar atmospheric parameters, chemical abundances, stellar masses, and stellar radii for a sample of 90 transit hosts. Surface gravities are also derived photometrically using the stellar density as derived from the light curve. We study the effect of using these different surface gravities on the determination of the chemical abundances and the stellar mass and radius. Methods. A spectroscopic analysis based on Kurucz models in local thermodynamical equilibrium was performed through the MOOG code to derive the atmospheric parameters and the chemical abundances. The photometric surface gravity was determined through isochrone fitting and the use of the stellar density, directly determined from the light curve. Stellar masses and radii are determined through calibration formulae. Results. Spectroscopic and photometric surface gravities differ, but this has very little effect on the precise determination of the stellar mass in our spectroscopic analysis. The stellar radius, and hence the planetary radius, is most affected by the surface gravity discrepancies. For the chemical abundances, the difference is, as expected, only noticable for the abundances derived from analyzing lines of ionized species.

Original languageEnglish
Article numberA106
JournalAstronomy and Astrophysics
Volume558
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2013

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work made use of the ESO archive and the Simbad Database. This work was supported by the European Research Council/European Community under the FP7 through Starting Grant agreement number 239953. N.C.S. acknowledges the support of the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) in the form of grant reference PTDC/CTE-AST/098528/2008. V.Zh.A., S.G.S. and E.D.M are supported by grants SFRH/BPD/70574/2010, SFRH/BPD/47611/2008 and SFRH/BPD/76606/2011, respectively , also from FCT. GI acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Ministry project MICINN AYA2011-29060.

Keywords

  • Planets and satellites: fundamental parameters
  • Stars: abundances
  • Stars: fundamental parameters
  • Techniques: spectroscopic

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

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