Spectroscopic determination of the fundamental parameters of 66 B-type stars in the field-of-view of the CoRoT satellite

TL;DR

This study develops an automated spectroscopic method to accurately determine fundamental parameters of 66 B-type stars in the CoRoT field, aiding future seismic modeling efforts.

Contribution

The paper introduces a new automated analysis procedure using FASTWIND models for B stars with winds, validated on synthetic and real spectra, and applied to a significant star sample.

Findings

Validated method on synthetic and real spectra

Derived fundamental parameters for 66 B stars

Compared results with evolutionary models

Abstract

We aim to determine the fundamental parameters of a sample of B stars with apparent visual magnitudes below 8 in the field-of-view of the CoRoT space mission, from high-resolution spectroscopy. We developed an automatic procedure for the spectroscopic analysis of B-type stars with winds, based on an extensive grid of FASTWIND model atmospheres. We use the equivalent widths and/or the line profile shapes of continuum normalized hydrogen, helium and silicon line profiles to determine the fundamental properties of these stars in an automated way. After thorough tests, both on synthetic datasets and on very high-quality, high-resolution spectra of B stars for which we already had accurate values of their physical properties from alternative analyses, we applied our method to 66 B-type stars contained in the ground-based archive of the CoRoT space mission. We discuss the statistical properties of the sample and compare them with those predicted by evolutionary models of B stars. Our spectroscopic results provide a valuable starting point for any future seismic modelling of the stars, should they be observed by CoRoT.