Sounding stellar cycles with Kepler - II. Ground-based observations

TL;DR

This study combines space-based Kepler data with ground-based spectroscopic observations to analyze stellar activity, rotation, and age relations in Sun-like stars, aiming to improve stellar dynamo models.

Contribution

It presents a methodology for integrating asteroseismic, photometric, and spectroscopic data to test age-rotation-activity relations in Sun-like stars.

Findings

Measured excess fluxes for 20 Sun-like stars.

Derived stellar ages using asteroseismology.

Analyzed the correlation between age, rotation, and activity.

Abstract

We have monitored 20 Sun-like stars in the Kepler field-of-view for excess flux with the FIES spectrograph on the Nordic Optical Telescope since the launch of Kepler spacecraft in 2009. These 20 stars were selected based on their asteroseismic properties to sample the parameter space (effective temperature, surface gravity, activity level etc.) around the Sun. Though the ultimate goal is to improve stellar dynamo models, we focus the present paper on the combination of space-based and ground-based observations can be used to test the age-rotation-activity relations. In this paper we describe the considerations behind the selection of these 20 Sun-like stars and present an initial asteroseismic analysis, which includes stellar age estimates. We also describe the observations from the Nordic Optical Telescope and present mean values of measured excess fluxes. These measurements are combined with estimates of the rotation periods obtained from a simple analysis of the modulation in photometric observations from Kepler caused by starspots, and asteroseismic determinations of stellar ages, to test relations between between age, rotation and activity.