$\mathrm{H}\alpha$ chromospheric activity of F-, G-, and K-type stars observed by the LAMOST Medium-Resolution Spectroscopic Survey

TL;DR

This study analyzes the distribution of H-alpha chromospheric activity in over 329,000 F-, G-, and K-type stars from the LAMOST survey, revealing how activity varies with stellar parameters and evolutionary stages.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of H-alpha activity distribution across stellar parameters for a large spectroscopic dataset, highlighting differences between main-sequence and giant stars.

Findings

Main-sequence stars show a bowl-shaped activity distribution with temperature.

Giant stars exhibit a peak in activity at around 5600 K, then decline at lower temperatures.

Higher metallicity stars tend to have higher H-alpha activity levels.

Abstract

The distribution of stellar $\mathrm{H}\alpha$ chromospheric activity with respect to stellar atmospheric parameters (effective temperature $T_\mathrm{eff}$, surface gravity $\log\,g$, and metallicity $\mathrm{[Fe/H]}$) and main-sequence/giant categories is investigated for the F-, G-, and K-type stars observed by the LAMOST Medium-Resolution Spectroscopic Survey (MRS). A total of 329,294 MRS spectra from LAMOST DR8 are utilized in the analysis. The $\mathrm{H}\alpha$ activity index ($I_{\mathrm{H}{\alpha}}$) and the $\mathrm{H}\alpha$ $R$-index ($R_{\mathrm{H}{\alpha}}$) are evaluated for the MRS spectra. The $\mathrm{H}\alpha$ chromospheric activity distributions with individual stellar parameters as well as in the $T_\mathrm{eff}$ -- $\log\,g$ and $T_\mathrm{eff}$ -- $\mathrm{[Fe/H]}$ parameter spaces are analyzed based on the $R_{\mathrm{H}{\alpha}}$ index data. It is found that: (1) for the main-sequence sample, the $R_{\mathrm{H}{\alpha}}$ distribution with $T_\mathrm{eff}$ has a bowl-shaped lower envelope with a minimum at about 6200 K, a hill-shaped middle envelope with a maximum at about 5600 K, and an upper envelope continuing to increase from hotter to cooler stars; (2) for the giant sample, the middle and upper envelopes of the $R_{\mathrm{H}{\alpha}}$ distribution first increase with a decrease of $T_\mathrm{eff}$ and then drop to a lower activity level at about 4300 K, revealing different activity characteristics at different stages of stellar evolution; (3) for both the main-sequence and giant samples, the upper envelope of the $R_{\mathrm{H}{\alpha}}$ distribution with metallicity is higher for stars with $\mathrm{[Fe/H]}$ greater than about $-1.0$, and the lowest-metallicity stars hardly exhibit high $\mathrm{H}\alpha$ indices. A dataset of $\mathrm{H}\alpha$ activity indices for the LAMOST MRS spectra analyzed is provided with this paper.