The Sun as a planet-host star : proxies from SDO images for HARPS radial-velocity variations
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Date
21/04/2016Author
Funder
Grant ID
ST/M001296/1
ST/G001006/1
ST/I000666/1
PP/D000890/1
ST/J001651/1
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The Sun is the only star whose surface can be directly resolved at high resolution, and therefore constitutes an excellent test case to explore the physical origin of stellar radial-velocity (RV) variability. We present HARPS observations of sunlight scattered off the bright asteroid 4/Vesta, from which we deduced the Sun's activity-driven RV variations. In parallel, the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager instrument on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory provided us with simultaneous high spatial resolution magnetograms, Dopplergrams and continuum images of the Sun in the Fe i 6173 Å line. We determine the RV modulation arising from the suppression of granular blueshift in magnetized regions and the flux imbalance induced by dark spots and bright faculae. The rms velocity amplitudes of these contributions are 2.40 and 0.41 m s−1, respectively, which confirms that the inhibition of convection is the dominant source of activity-induced RV variations at play, in accordance with previous studies. We find the Doppler imbalances of spot and plage regions to be only weakly anticorrelated. Light curves can thus only give incomplete predictions of convective blueshift suppression. We must instead seek proxies that track the plage coverage on the visible stellar hemisphere directly. The chromospheric flux index R′HK derived from the HARPS spectra performs poorly in this respect, possibly because of the differences in limb brightening/darkening in the chromosphere and photosphere. We also find that the activity-driven RV variations of the Sun are strongly correlated with its full-disc magnetic flux density, which may become a useful proxy for activity-related RV noise.
Citation
Haywood , R D , Cameron , A C , Unruh , Y C , Lovis , C , Lanza , A F , Llama , J , Deleuil , M , Fares , R , Gillon , M , Moutou , C , Pepe , F , Pollacco , D , Queloz , D & Segransan , D 2016 , ' The Sun as a planet-host star : proxies from SDO images for HARPS radial-velocity variations ' , Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society , vol. 457 , no. 4 , pp. 3637-3651 . https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stw187
Publication
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0035-8711Type
Journal article
Description
RDH gratefully acknowledges STFC studentship grant number ST/J500744/1, and a grant from the John Templeton Foundation. ACC and RF acknowledge support from STFC consolidated grants numbers ST/J001651/1 and ST/M001296/1. JL acknowledges support from NASA Origins of the Solar System grant No. NNX13AH79G and from STFC grant ST/M001296/1.Collections
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