sMILES: A Library of Semi-Empirical MILES Stellar Spectra with Variable [$\alpha$/Fe] Abundances

TL;DR

The paper introduces sMILES, a semi-empirical stellar spectral library with variable [$ ext{alpha}$/Fe] abundances, created by differential correction of empirical MILES spectra using new theoretical models, useful for stellar population studies.

Contribution

It develops a novel semi-empirical spectral library with variable alpha-element abundances by combining empirical data with theoretical differential corrections.

Findings

Reasonable agreement between models and empirical spectra.

Created 5 families of 801 spectra with [$ ext{alpha}$/Fe] from -0.20 to 0.60 dex.

Library is publicly available for stellar population research.

Abstract

We present a new library of semi-empirical stellar spectra that is based on the empirical MILES library. A new, high resolution library of theoretical stellar spectra is generated that is specifically designed for use in stellar population studies. We test these models across their full wavelength range against other model libraries and find reasonable agreement in their predictions of spectral changes due to atmospheric $\alpha$-element variations, known as differential corrections. We also test the models against the MILES and MaStar libraries of empirical stellar spectra and also find reasonable agreements, as expected from previous work. We then use the abundance pattern predictions of the new theoretical stellar spectra to differentially correct MILES spectra to create semi-empirical MILES (sMILES) star spectra with abundance patterns that differ from those present in the Milky Way. The final result is 5 families of 801 sMILES stars with [$\alpha$/Fe] abundances ranging from $-$0.20 to 0.60 dex at MILES resolution (FWHM=$2.5\,${\AA}) and wavelength coverage ($3540.5-7409.6\,${\AA}). We make the sMILES library publicly available.