Spectral variability of photospheric radiation due to faculae II: Facular contrasts for cool main-sequence stars

TL;DR

This study derives and compares facular contrasts for various main-sequence stars using magnetoconvection simulations, revealing that solar-based models are insufficient for accurate stellar variability predictions across different spectral types.

Contribution

First to provide magnetoconvection simulation-based facular contrasts for K0, M0, and M2 stars, expanding understanding beyond the previously studied G2 stars.

Findings

Facular brightness contrasts vary significantly with spectral type, wavelength, and magnetic field strength.

Solar-based contrast scaling is inadequate for other spectral types due to different magnetic feature structures.

Contrasts depend on viewing angle, spectral type, and magnetic field, affecting stellar variability models.

Abstract

Magnetic features on the surface of stars, such as spots and faculae, cause stellar spectral variability on time-scales of days and longer. For stars other than the Sun, the spectral signatures of faculae are poorly understood, limiting our ability to account for stellar pollution in exoplanet transit observations. Here we present the first facular contrasts derived from magnetoconvection simulations for K0, M0 and M2 main-sequence stars and compare them to previous calculations for G2 main-sequence stars. We simulate photospheres and immediate subsurface layers of main-sequence spectral types between K0 and M2, with different injected vertical magnetic fields (0 G, 100 G, 300 G and 500 G) using MURaM, a 3D radiation-magnetohydrodynamics code. We show synthetic spectra and contrasts from the UV (300 nm) to the IR (10000 nm) calculated using the ATLAS9 radiative transfer code. The calculations are performed for nine viewing angles to characterise the facular radiation across the disc. The brightness contrasts of magnetic regions are found to change significantly across spectral type, wavelength and magnetic field strength, leading to the conclusion that accurate contrasts cannot be found by scaling solar values. This is due to features of different size, apparent structure and spectral brightness emerging in the presence of a given magnetic field for different spectral types.