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Bayesian inference of stellar parameters and interstellar extinction using parallaxes and multiband photometry
Astrometric surveys provide the opportunity to measure the absolutemagnitudes of large numbers of stars, but only if the individualline-of-sight extinctions are known. Unfortunately, extinction is highlydegenerate with stellar effective temperature when estimated frombroad-band optical/infrared photometry. To address this problem, Iintroduce a Bayesian method for estimating the intrinsic parameters of astar and its line-of-sight extinction. It uses both photometry andparallaxes in a self-consistent manner in order to provide anon-parametric posterior probability distribution over the parameters.The method makes explicit use of domain knowledge by employing theHertzsprung-Russell Diagram (HRD) to constrain solutions and to ensurethat they respect stellar physics. I first demonstrate this method byusing it to estimate effective temperature and extinction from BVJHKdata for a set of artificially reddened Hipparcos stars, for whichaccurate effective temperatures have been estimated from high-resolutionspectroscopy. Using just the four colours, we see the expected strongdegeneracy (positive correlation) between the temperature andextinction. Introducing the parallax, apparent magnitude and the HRDreduces this degeneracy and improves both the precision (reduces theerror bars) and the accuracy of the parameter estimates, the latter byabout 35 per cent. The resulting accuracy is about 200 K in temperatureand 0.2 mag in extinction. I then apply the method to estimate theseparameters and absolute magnitudes for some 47 000 F, G, K Hipparcosstars which have been cross-matched with Two-Micron All-Sky Survey(2MASS). The method can easily be extended to incorporate the estimationof other parameters, in particular metallicity and surface gravity,making it particularly suitable for the analysis of the 109stars from Gaia.
| M dwarfs: effective temperatures, radii and metallicities
We empirically determine effective temperatures and bolometricluminosities for a large sample of nearby M dwarfs, for which highaccuracy optical and infrared photometry is available. We introduce anew technique which exploits the flux ratio in different bands as aproxy of both effective temperature and metallicity. Our temperaturescale for late-type dwarfs extends well below 3000K (almost to the browndwarf limit) and is supported by interferometric angular diametermeasurements above 3000K. Our metallicities are in excellent agreement(usually within 0.2dex) with recent determinations via independenttechniques. A subsample of cool M dwarfs with metallicity estimatesbased on hotter Hipparcos common proper motion companions indicates ourmetallicities are also reliable below 3000K, a temperature rangeunexplored until now. The high quality of our data allows us to identifya striking feature in the bolometric luminosity versus temperatureplane, around the transition from K to M dwarfs. We have compared oursample of stars with theoretical models and conclude that thistransition is due to an increase in the radii of the M dwarfs, a featurewhich is not reproduced by theoretical models.
| Improved Astrometry and Photometry for the Luyten Catalog. II. Faint Stars and the Revised Catalog
We complete construction of a catalog containing improved astrometry andnew optical/infrared photometry for the vast majority of NLTT starslying in the overlap of regions covered by POSS I and by the secondincremental Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) release, approximately 44%of the sky. The epoch 2000 positions are typically accurate to 130 mas,the proper motions to 5.5 mas yr-1, and the V-J colors to0.25 mag. Relative proper motions of binary components are measured to 3mas yr-1. The false-identification rate is ~1% for11<~V<~18 and substantially less at brighter magnitudes. Theseimprovements permit the construction of a reduced proper-motion diagramthat, for the first time, allows one to classify NLTT stars intomain-sequence (MS) stars, subdwarfs (SDs), and white dwarfs (WDs). We inturn use this diagram to analyze the properties of both our catalog andthe NLTT catalog on which it is based. In sharp contrast to popularbelief, we find that NLTT incompleteness in the plane is almostcompletely concentrated in MS stars, and that SDs and WDs are detectedalmost uniformly over the sky δ>-33deg. Our catalogwill therefore provide a powerful tool to probe these populationsstatistically, as well as to reliably identify individual SDs and WDs.
| UBV(RI)C photometry of Hipparcos red stars
We present homogeneous and standardized UBV(RI)C photometryfor nearly 550 M stars selected from the Hipparcos satellite data baseusing the following selection criteria: lack of obvious variability (noHipparcos variability flag); δ<+10°(V-I)>1.7 and Vmagnitude fainter than about 7.6. Comparisons are made between thecurrent photometry, other ground-based data sets and Hipparcosphotometry. We use linear discriminant analysis to determine aluminosity segregation criterion for late-type stars, and principalcomponent analysis to study the statistical structure of the colourindices and to calibrate absolute magnitude in terms of (V-I) for thedwarf stars. Various methods are used to determine the mean absolutemagnitude of the giant stars. We find 10 dwarf stars, apparentlypreviously unrecognized (prior to Hipparcos) as being within 25pc,including five within 20pc.
| New light on faint stars. I - The luminosity function in the solar neighbourhood
From photoelectric photometry of red dwarf stars identified in anobjective prism survey, a magnitude-limited complete sample has beendefined. Applying photometric parallaxes, calibrated for theKron-Cousins system by observations of trigonometric parallax stars,this sample is used to determine the space densities of stars withabsolute magnitudes between + 7 and + 12. The resultant luminosityfunction is consistent with the Luyten and Wielen functions for thesolar neighbourhood. An analysis of the stellar kinematics shows littlesignificant evidence of a substantial local population of low spacemotion M-dwarfs.
| Photometry of Southern Hemisphere red dwarf stars
Results are presented for a photometric investigation of aspectroscopically selected sample of red dwarf stars in the SouthernHemisphere. Absolute magnitudes and distances for the stars areestimated from broadband red colors. Three stars which may besubluminous are identified, as are several stars which may be within 25pc. The tangential velocity and velocity dispersion of the sample aresimilar to values found in other studies of nearby late-type stars.
| The space density and kinematics of dwarf M stars
The results of an objective-prism survey for dwarf stars, K7 and later,are presented. One hundred twenty-one red sensitive plates covering 1720sq. degrees of the southern sky were obtained with the Curtis Schmidttelescope at C.T.I.O. The resulting luminosity function rises from log N+ 10 = 7.9 at MV = 8 to about 8.7 at MV = 11 and12. About 75% of the dwarfs in this survey are identified with BPMstars, but inserting the proper motions given into the equations of themethod of mean absolute magnitudes yields values of MB aboutthree magnitudes brighter than the spectral types would indicate. Thatthe method of mean absolute magnitudes appears to be calibrated on starsof higher than average proper motion lends credence to the luminosityfunction result. A galactic mass density is found for the dwarfsconsidered.
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Observation and Astrometry data
| Constellation: | Tucana |
| Right ascension: | 01h07m16.31s |
| Declination: | -63°23'40.7" |
| Apparent magnitude: | 11.007 |
| Distance: | 48.685 parsecs |
| Proper motion RA: | 0 |
| Proper motion Dec: | 0 |
| B-T magnitude: | 13.004 |
| V-T magnitude: | 11.172 |
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