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Main Authors: Maggio, Antonio, Pillitteri, Ignazio, Sanz-Forcada, Jorge, Micela, Giuseppina
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.11220
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author Maggio, Antonio
Pillitteri, Ignazio
Sanz-Forcada, Jorge
Micela, Giuseppina
author_facet Maggio, Antonio
Pillitteri, Ignazio
Sanz-Forcada, Jorge
Micela, Giuseppina
contents High-energy emission spectra from the outer atmospheres of late-type stars represent an important feature of the stellar activity in several contexts, such as the photoevaporation and photochemistry of planetary atmospheres or the modeling of irradiated circumstellar disks in young objects. An accurate determination of these spectra in the EUV and soft X-ray (XUV) band requires high-resolution spectroscopy, that is rarely feasible with current instrumentation. We employed a relatively large set of plasma emission measure distributions (EMDs) as a function of temperature, derived from FUV and X-ray emission line spectra acquired with the Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra or XMM-Newton, in order to devise a relatively simple recipe for predicting EMDs and XUV spectra of stars of different spectral types, activity levels, and plasma metallicity. We show that the EMDs in the range of temperatures between 10^4 K and 10^7.5 K can be described using the stellar surface X-ray flux as a control parameter, but this parameterization also depends on the spectral type. In particular, we find that M-type stars show slightly lower emission measure at temperatures below ~10^5 K and higher emission measures for T > ~10^6.5 K with respect to FGK stars with similar surface X-ray fluxes. We evaluated the uncertainties in the broad-band EUV and X-ray fluxes derived from synthetic EMDs and spectra, considering in the error budget also the limited knowledge of the chemical abundances in stellar outer atmospheres.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_11220
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Empirical prediction of plasma emission measure distributions and X-EUV spectra of late-type stars
Maggio, Antonio
Pillitteri, Ignazio
Sanz-Forcada, Jorge
Micela, Giuseppina
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
High-energy emission spectra from the outer atmospheres of late-type stars represent an important feature of the stellar activity in several contexts, such as the photoevaporation and photochemistry of planetary atmospheres or the modeling of irradiated circumstellar disks in young objects. An accurate determination of these spectra in the EUV and soft X-ray (XUV) band requires high-resolution spectroscopy, that is rarely feasible with current instrumentation. We employed a relatively large set of plasma emission measure distributions (EMDs) as a function of temperature, derived from FUV and X-ray emission line spectra acquired with the Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra or XMM-Newton, in order to devise a relatively simple recipe for predicting EMDs and XUV spectra of stars of different spectral types, activity levels, and plasma metallicity. We show that the EMDs in the range of temperatures between 10^4 K and 10^7.5 K can be described using the stellar surface X-ray flux as a control parameter, but this parameterization also depends on the spectral type. In particular, we find that M-type stars show slightly lower emission measure at temperatures below ~10^5 K and higher emission measures for T > ~10^6.5 K with respect to FGK stars with similar surface X-ray fluxes. We evaluated the uncertainties in the broad-band EUV and X-ray fluxes derived from synthetic EMDs and spectra, considering in the error budget also the limited knowledge of the chemical abundances in stellar outer atmospheres.
title Empirical prediction of plasma emission measure distributions and X-EUV spectra of late-type stars
topic Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.11220