Label Transfer from APOGEE to LAMOST: Precise Stellar Parameters for 450,000 LAMOST Giants

TL;DR

This paper uses a data-driven spectral modeling approach to transfer precise stellar parameters from the high-resolution APOGEE survey to the large LAMOST survey, creating a comprehensive catalog of stellar labels for 450,000 giants.

Contribution

It introduces a novel label transfer method using The Cannon to unify stellar parameters across different spectroscopic surveys, including the first [$ extalpha$/M] measurements for all LAMOST giants.

Findings

Generated the largest [$ extalpha$/M] catalog for giants to date.

Achieved label uncertainties comparable to APOGEE for low-resolution spectra.

Successfully aligned LAMOST labels with the APOGEE scale.

Abstract

In this era of large-scale stellar spectroscopic surveys, measurements of stellar attributes ("labels," i.e. parameters and abundances) must be made precise and consistent across surveys. Here, we demonstrate that this can be achieved by a data-driven approach to spectral modeling. With The Cannon, we transfer information from the APOGEE survey to determine precise Teff, log g, [Fe/H], and [$\alpha$/M] from the spectra of 450,000 LAMOST giants. The Cannon fits a predictive model for LAMOST spectra using 9952 stars observed in common between the two surveys, taking five labels from APOGEE DR12 as ground truth: Teff, log g, [Fe/H], [\alpha/M], and K-band extinction $A_k$. The model is then used to infer Teff, log g, [Fe/H], and [$\alpha$/M] for 454,180 giants, 20% of the LAMOST DR2 stellar sample. These are the first [$\alpha$/M] values for the full set of LAMOST giants, and the largest catalog of [$\alpha$/M] for giant stars to date. Furthermore, these labels are by construction on the APOGEE label scale; for spectra with S/N > 50, cross-validation of the model yields typical uncertainties of 70K in Teff, 0.1 in log g, 0.1 in [Fe/H], and 0.04 in [$\alpha$/M], values comparable to the broadly stated, conservative APOGEE DR12 uncertainties. Thus, by using "label transfer" to tie low-resolution (LAMOST R $\sim$ 1800) spectra to the label scale of a much higher-resolution (APOGEE R $\sim$ 22,500) survey, we substantially reduce the inconsistencies between labels measured by the individual survey pipelines. This demonstrates that label transfer with The Cannon can successfully bring different surveys onto the same physical scale.