Stars Hosting Planets: the SHoP project

Rationale

This projects aims at systematic and consistent determination of fundamental parameters for a large sample of Main Sequence stars covering the range of temperatures from 7000 K down to 3500 K. The sample includes stars with and without planets and therefore we will also look for reliable correlations between stellar properties and the presence/properties of planets.

SHoP группа

Piskunov Nikolai, professor of Uppsala University (Sweden) - head of the team

Ryabchikova Tatiana, leading scientist of the Institute of Astronomy RAS - head of the team from Russian site

Pakhomov Yury, senior scientist of the Institute of Astronomy RAS

Mashonkina Lyudmila, leading scientist of the Institute of Astronomy RAS

Kurbatov Eugeny, scientist of the Institute of Astronomy RAS

Sitnova Tatiana, PhD student

Alekseeva Sofia, PhD student

Titarenko Anastasia, 5th year student of M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (Department of Physics)

Nizamov Bulat, 5th year student of M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (Department of Physics)

Comparison with previous similar studies

The SHoP project is not the first of its kind. Fischer and Valenti pioneered this direction of research. A large number of other groups tried to repeat and extend the study of planet-hosting stars. Just in 2012 three large reviews were published: Buchave et al., Adibekyan et al., Ramirez et al..

The two main conclusions the came out are:

1. There might be significant correlation between stellar properties and the presence of (specific type of) planets
2. The method and the data used in the analysis can significantly affect the reliability of correlations
3. Generalization of stellar properties (e.g. characterization of abundances of individual species with a single "metallicity" parameter) may hide correlations

Project components

• VALD3 database
• Spectral synthesis codes: SME, ...
• Stellar atmosphere models: MARCS, Kurucz
• Spectral atlases: Sun, Sun2011 ...
• Observations: target spectra and calibration data from the Keck HiReS spectrograph
• Spectroscopic reduction package: REDUCE

Project steps

1. Selection of targets List_of_program_stars.pdf
2. Selection and analysis of atomic and molecular data and spectral intervals
3. Testing NLTE calculations
4. Pilot analysis of a selected subset of stars
5. Analysis of a stastistically significant group of stars

Undergraduate and graduate training

Observational Astrophysics course

Stellar atmosphere course

Meetings

• December 2012, Uppsala
• January 2013, Moscow
• March 2013, Moscow

Time line

Results