The Ariel 0.6 - 7.8 $\mu$m stellar limb-darkening coefficients

TL;DR

This paper provides comprehensive stellar limb-darkening coefficients for the Ariel space mission, derived from multiple stellar atmosphere models covering a wide range of stellar parameters, to aid in exoplanet observation analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a set of limb-darkening coefficients calculated with open-source software using two different stellar atmosphere models, covering extensive stellar parameter ranges for the Ariel mission.

Findings

LDCs are provided for various instruments and wavelength bands.

Comparison between ATLAS9 and PHOENIX models shows consistency and differences.

The models span a wide range of stellar temperatures, gravities, and metallicities.

Abstract

We provide here tables of stellar limb-darkening coefficients (LDCs) for the Ariel ESA M4 space mission. These tables include LDCs corresponding to different wavelength bins and white bands for the NIRSpec, AIRS-Ch0 and AIRS-Ch1 spectrographs, and those corresponding to the VISPhot, FGS1 and FGS2 photometers. The LDCs are calculated with the open-source software ExoTETHyS for three complete grids of stellar atmosphere models obtained with the ATLAS9 and PHOENIX codes. The three model grids are complementary, as the PHOENIX code adopts more modern input physics and spherical geometry, while the models calculated with ATLAS9 cover wider ranges of stellar parameters. The LDCs obtained from corresponding models in the ATLAS9 and PHOENIX grids are compared in the main text. All together the models cover the following ranges in effective temperature ($1\,500 \, K \le T_{\mbox{eff}} \le 50\,000 \, K$), surface gravity (0.0 dex $\le \log{g} \le 6.0$ dex), and metallicity ($-5.0 \le [M/H] \le 1.0$).