Sensitivity of spectral lines to granulation: The Sun

Fuente: arXiv
Enregistré dans:
Détails bibliographiques
Auteurs principaux: Sowmya, K., Shapiro, A. I., Vasilyev, V., Witzke, V., Cameron, A. Collier, Solanki, S. K.
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
Sujets:
Accès en ligne:
Tags: Ajouter un tag
Pas de tags, Soyez le premier à ajouter un tag!
_version_ 1866910137131728896
author Sowmya, K.
Shapiro, A. I.
Vasilyev, V.
Witzke, V.
Cameron, A. Collier
Solanki, S. K.
author_facet Sowmya, K.
Shapiro, A. I.
Vasilyev, V.
Witzke, V.
Cameron, A. Collier
Solanki, S. K.
contents The intrinsic variability of stars, due to acoustic oscillations, surface granulation, and magnetic activity, introduces radial velocity (RV) jitter in spectral lines, obscuring true planetary signals and hindering the detection of Earth-like planets. Granulation is particularly challenging, as it affects even the most inactive stars introducing substantial signals, with amplitudes up to 1 m/s. Disentangling granulation-induced RV jitter from signal caused by planetary reflex motion requires reliable models of stellar granulation. In this study, we present a new approach for calculating sensitivities of spectral lines to granulation. We simulate near-surface convection with 3D radiative MHD code MURaM and calculate high-resolution emergent spectra with the radiative transfer code MPS-ATLAS. We then introduce a novel methodology that uses spatial variability of spectral lines across the granulation pattern at a single moment in time to compute their temporal variability. This approach significantly reduces computational costs. We apply our approach to analyze the response of lines from neutral and singly ionized elemental species to solar granulation.We find a clear distinction between the two groups of lines: those from neutral elements tend to show stronger variations in line strength, whereas those from singly ionized elements exhibit larger variations in central wavelength. These results enable the development of spectral line masks tailored to granulation sensitivity, offering a promising strategy to reduce granulation-induced RV noise and improve exoplanet detection.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_09824
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Sensitivity of spectral lines to granulation: The Sun
Sowmya, K.
Shapiro, A. I.
Vasilyev, V.
Witzke, V.
Cameron, A. Collier
Solanki, S. K.
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
The intrinsic variability of stars, due to acoustic oscillations, surface granulation, and magnetic activity, introduces radial velocity (RV) jitter in spectral lines, obscuring true planetary signals and hindering the detection of Earth-like planets. Granulation is particularly challenging, as it affects even the most inactive stars introducing substantial signals, with amplitudes up to 1 m/s. Disentangling granulation-induced RV jitter from signal caused by planetary reflex motion requires reliable models of stellar granulation. In this study, we present a new approach for calculating sensitivities of spectral lines to granulation. We simulate near-surface convection with 3D radiative MHD code MURaM and calculate high-resolution emergent spectra with the radiative transfer code MPS-ATLAS. We then introduce a novel methodology that uses spatial variability of spectral lines across the granulation pattern at a single moment in time to compute their temporal variability. This approach significantly reduces computational costs. We apply our approach to analyze the response of lines from neutral and singly ionized elemental species to solar granulation.We find a clear distinction between the two groups of lines: those from neutral elements tend to show stronger variations in line strength, whereas those from singly ionized elements exhibit larger variations in central wavelength. These results enable the development of spectral line masks tailored to granulation sensitivity, offering a promising strategy to reduce granulation-induced RV noise and improve exoplanet detection.
title Sensitivity of spectral lines to granulation: The Sun
topic Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.09824